Police at Pri? Gay ps, LGBTQ activists stggle to see eye-to-eye

Contents:

• THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?
• POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE
• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• ELON MK RETWEETS GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT PL PELOSI
• RSIAN POLICE TA GAYS AS PUNCH FLY
• VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL
• WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE
• CT NATIVE BREAKS BARRIER AS FIRST OPENLY-GAY NFL ACH

THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?

Reports n be found across the Uned Stat of police allegedly g excsive force agast lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people. The multiday prott — wily nsired a pivotal turng pot the morn gay rights movement — was triggered by a police raid on the popular Stonewall Inn gay bar. History, police officers were bound to enforce explicly anti-gay laws — om lol measur outlawg men om “impersonatg a female” to the wispread crimalizatn of same-sex sexual activy.

POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE

Texas that gay sex was crimalized throughout the untry.

She poted to a study published by the Williams Instute May that found lbian, gay, bisexual and queer people are six tim more likely than the general public to be stopped by police (data about transgenr dividuals were not available the datasets analyzed). The bans have been divisive, even wh the LGBTQ muny — and particularly among openly gay police officers. Prr to the start of this trag, negative attus about the LGBTQ muny were reportedly pervasive wh the partment: In 1996, durg a retrag of veteran officers, a word associatn exercise asked for rpons to the word “gays.

Gtavo Alvarez, a gay rint of Palo Alto, California, settled his lawsu agast s police partment after accg of vlatg his civil rights, rultg a settlement that clud a $572, 500 payout and a one-off two hours of mandatory LGBTQ-awarens trag for all police officers the partment. “There was no secret that he was gay, and the officers fely ed that as a way to mean him their prr ntacts wh him and also durg this ntact.

PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.

In New York Cy — where LGBTQ trag is provid by the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) for both new recs and veteran officers — Cummgs wants the police missner to be a civilian and lgs om the Civilian Complat Review Board, the NYPD’s oversight agency, be bdg. “Across the board systemic racism and homophobia is play wh policg, so go beyond trag and budget. But the unrver operatn, which was sharply cricized recently by a judge, also exemplifi a ntroversial, age-old police tactic that many of California’s largt law enforcement agenci have quietly abandoned recent years amid mountg cricism and changg sexual the most-read stori this hour >>In Los Angel, Long Beach and other areas where unrver lewd nduct stgs endure, police fend them as an important tool for tchg people who are vlatg the law and for terrg others om tryg to have sex parks and other public areas ed by fai and activists do not ndone public sex but have long nmned the bts as a form of entrapment, sayg they unfairly sgle out gay men, wh sometim vastatg nsequenc.

ELON MK RETWEETS GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT PL PELOSI

But recent years, crics of the stgs have gaed tractn as public attus about homosexualy and gay rights have shifted.

“Nobody is gog to fend lewd nduct, but there is a qualative difference between sexual predators and people who engage boorish behavr, ” said Los Angel County Asssor Jefey Prang, who is gay and a former special assistant the Sheriff’s Department who worked wh s LGBT advisory uncil. Last month, a Los Angel County judge threw out the charg one se stemmg om Long Beach’s 2014 operatn, sayg police were discrimatg agast gay law enforcement agenci have stopped rponse to lawsus or after polil backlash.

RSIAN POLICE TA GAYS AS PUNCH FLY

While lewd nduct plats have dropped dramatilly recent years, Neiman said stgs have been ed to shut down persistent hotspots for gay cisg and lewd acts 11 tim sce 2014.

“You still have to enforce the law when you get plats, ” he e of unrver ps to target gay men Southern California stretch back to the early 20th century, when gay sex was illegal, said Lillian Farman, a historian and thor of “Gay L. Brown, “vice specialists” who loered public rtrooms and other areas while rryg out so-lled “pury mpaigns” aimed at gay men Long Beach and Los Angel, Farman wrote, addg that their methods served as a mol for stgs throughout Southern pair had no prr police trag but were given police badg both ci. They were paid for each arrt and offered their servic to other major ci, she 1914, The Tim reported on an operatn which the two helped arrt 31 men acced of engagg gay sex at private clubs Long Beach.

VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL

”Wt Hollywood Councilman John Duran, an attorney who has reprented men cisg s for 30 years, said a typil client was a “eply closeted gay or bisexual man who had hidn renzvo public plac. ” Many, he said, had low self-teem and turned to cisg bee they thought they were unservg of the LGBT movement, said Duran, who is gay, “has produced new generatns of out and proud people who believe they n have healthy sexual enunters.

” Growg public support of gay rights and the prence of openly gay officers police partments has put prsure on agenci to stop g stgs, he y operatns have drawn fierce Sprgs police sparked outrage 2009 when officers arrted 19 men an unrver stg a neighborhood known for gay rorts.

Pl Ford, supervisor of the agency’s tective Long Beach, gay-rights activists said they were troubled — and surprised — to see stgs still beg ployed a cy wh a vibrant LGBT muny and an openly gay Beach police took more than two dozen men to ctody durg y operatns om 2012 to 2014, acrdg to Bce Nickerson, a civil rights of those men was Rory Moroney, who was arrted the Recreatn Park stg the day he was arrted, Moroney said he was g his laptop the park to search for jobs. Dhanida found that the stgs were “ditive of anim toward homosexuals. ”ALSOLong Beach’s sad history of targetg gay men for arrtHow gay men Long Beach were targeted by police and mocked by The Tim a century agoJudge slams gay sex stgs by Long Beach police, llg them discrimatoryhailey.

WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE

Jt before members of the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL) marched past the Stonewall Inn, the fish le of last year’s New York Cy Pri March, a small group of activists slipped past the barriers and chaed their hands together to prevent the officers om passg, a prott technique lled a “lockdown. ”Dozens of ps workg secury at the march surround the protters, and, over shouts of “f--k the police” and “racist, sexist, anti-gay, NYPD, KKK, ” began to break through what appeared to be chas and bber tub the protters had ed to lock themselv together.

Pacific Prs / LightRocket via Getty Imag fileThe irony of the cint was not lost on many the crowd — ps arrtg gay people ont of the Stonewall Inn, the very place where homophobic police btaly sparked the morn LGBTQ rights movement nearly five s years prr. In fact, New York Cy’s first gay pri march, which was held on June 28, 1970, was anized to memorate the one-year anniversary of what has bee known as the Stonewall Rts — when 1969 patrons of the now-inic gay bar fally had enough after yet another police raid.

Nohels, protters say they’re dog so to take a stand agast police btaly and harassment of margalized groups, namely people of lor and the transgenr DAYS OF GOALThe relatnship between the police and the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer muny has long been ght, but for LGBTQ ps, the right to march pri is a hard-fought civil rights the after that first pri march on June 28, 1970, New York’s gay rights movement ma so much progrs that by 1981 the police force self was facg LGBTQ activism om wh. Gay ps New York Cy, for example, led by Officer Charl Cochrane, sought to form their own employee rource group, like the on that existed for Hispanic, Irish-Amerin and Ain-Amerin Rodriguez, now a retired NYPD sergeant, was still the New York Cy Police Amy when Officer Cochrane entered his classroom 1982. Cochrane told the rooki his new group was lled the Gay Officers Actn League, or GOAL.

CT NATIVE BREAKS BARRIER AS FIRST OPENLY-GAY NFL ACH

A few months earlier, Cochrane had bee the first NYPD officer to publicly e out when he announced that he was gay at a cy uncil meetg November 1981.

Courty Edgar RodriguezLater that day, a woman om Rodriguez’s Police Amy class asked him which room the gay officers’ group was meetg . ”Rodriguez, who kept his sexualy to himself his early days as a p, relled overhearg on several ocsns racist, sexist and homophobic ments om his largely straight, whe and male lleagu back he was posted to New York Cy’s 6th Precct, which vers Greenwich Village, he relled a senr officer askg him, “So you work wh all the fags? ” Rodriguez rrected him, rpondg, “You mean lbians and gays?