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

Contents:

• GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• THE HANDSOME UNRVER P S. IS HE ENTRAPPG GAY MEN OR CLEANG UP A PARK?
• THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE
• GAY COPS: PRI BEHD THE BADGE
• GAY POLICE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG
• POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE
• THREE CHARGED WH ABE AFTER VIO SHOWS BOY WH ‘GAY’ SHAVED TO HAIR
• VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL

GAY POLICEMAN STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

Jam Tracy me out as gay to his police joed the Englewood Cliffs police partment 2002, but 10 years passed before he revealed his secret. “I was gettg lls om gay police officers all over the untry sayg thgs like ‘Hey, thanks for the publicy and gettg out there', ” he said. ”It's not always easy to be a p who is gay, but each step forward helps pave the way for a better future work environment, Tracy ntu below galleryWell before Tracy ever put on the police uniform, Wtwood police Officer Larry Schwartz helped pave the way for gay officers.

COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY

Schwartz remends other gay ps get volved and take the time to fd peers and seek help if there are road for officers who e out as gay to lleagu has not always been smooth. “It’s part of the tnal program bee people might not nsir themselv homophobic or racist, but have unrlyg patterns that are, ” Tracy said.

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

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. 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. 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.

THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE

“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.

GAY COPS: PRI BEHD THE BADGE

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.

GAY POLICE STOCK PHOTOS AND IMAG

”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.

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

”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.

But as the print of the force’s only LGBTQ aternal anizatn — the Gay Officers Actn League, or GOAL — his other role is to serve and support his brothers and sisters drsed blue … and rabows. Gay police officers straddle two worlds: Outsi the force, they are sometim viewed wh spicn by their own kd. As part of the force, they’re navigatg the very stutn largely rponsible for the vlence that led to the morn gay rights movement.

In fact, the gay rights movement was born out of a rt agast the police. In 1969, New York Cy officers raid the Stonewall Inn, a gay club Greenwich Village, sparkg vlent protts and clash that lasted six days. And back then, as now, the stggle between beg both a p and a gay activist wasn’t easily renciled.

THREE CHARGED WH ABE AFTER VIO SHOWS BOY WH ‘GAY’ SHAVED TO HAIR

“I’m very proud of beg a New York Cy policeman, and I’m equally proud of beg gay, ” he said to a stunned dience.

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

“It’s an ongog procs, y, but ’s important for the [gay muny] — which has this mentaly based on history that you n’t be both gay and a police officer — to see that there are gay ps out there. Before he joed the force 17 years ago, Locke was a social worker and director at the Gay and Lbian Anti-Vlence Project, where he vtigated s of police vlence agast the gay muny.

On June 12, a few weeks before this year’s Pri Para, Downey stood at the ont of an dorium New York’s police headquarters for an annual event to honor the cy’s gay officers.

Hundreds of gay ps and their straight alli were standg as the natnal anthem played. Even as recently as a few years ago, GOAL wasn’t allowed to hold Pri Month events, like the one this month to regnize their gay lleagu, at police headquarters. Jam Tracy of the Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, police partment, the abily to be openly gay while the police force is important to make those meangful chang.