What It's Like to Be a Black Gay Cop

Contents:

• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• BLACK GAY COP ON HBO
• POLICE AT PRI? GAY PS, LGBTQ ACTIVISTS STGGLE TO SEE EYE-TO-EYE
• GAY BLACK POLICE OFFICER WS DISCRIMATN SE
• A BLACK, GAY MAN IS CRIL CONDN AFTER BEG SHOT BY POLICE
• BLACK GAY UPLE SAYS STORE LLED PS ON THEM FOR BUYG NICE THGS
• WATCH VIRAL FOOTAGE OF KG VON ADMTG TO BEG GAY TO THE POLICE
• COPS TACKLE & ARRT GAY BLACK JOURNALIST DURG OH ERNOR’S PRS NFERENCE
• NYPD COPS KILLED A GAY BLACK MAN. THEIR UNN WANTS THE MAYOR TO DISMISS THE CHARG
• GAY CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER SU, SAYS HE ENDURED HARASSMENT BY FELLOW PS
• THE GAY ‘GHETTO BOY’ WHO BOND WH MISTER ROGERS AND CHANGED THE NEIGHBORHOOD
• GAY COP

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

This timate portra of Gamal 'G' Turawa, an ex-Metropolan police officer, explor his memori of racially profilg and harassg black people and homophobia his early reer.

BLACK GAY COP ON HBO

Now an openly gay man, Turawa’s story is a multi-layered one and ss the centre of three pivotal moments recent Brish history, om the black muni’ ristance of opprsive policg, to the ph for LGBTQIA equaly and the aftermath of the wt Ain 'farmg' phenomenon, where whe fai took re of black children outsi the rem of lol thori. ” The monstrators left angry but clash between protters and police fillg social media, prsure rose on Herage of Pri to rce police volvement, cludg banng the Gay Officers Actn League, which routely receiv effive cheers durg the Pri march. ” The board did not tell members about the cisn or ask for a the Gay Officers Actn League learned about the g policy, pre-empted Herage of Pri wh s own statement llg the ban “shameful.

Fisher, who had lled for the vote of no Downey, print of the gay officers group, said he felt “betrayed” by the ban, pecially bee the officers “put so much of themselv on the choppg block” by workg to change practic and attus wh their partments.

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

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. 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).

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.

GAY BLACK POLICE OFFICER WS DISCRIMATN SE

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. Pop culture mentator Janice Ltlejohn speaks to Tavis Sey about one of her favore new character's on TV, Keh Charl, the black, gay police officer played by Mathew St. That tersectn is as old as the morn fight for LGTBQ rights, and perhaps no moment illtrat that as well as the movement’s most famo turng pot: the 1969 Stonewall Rts, the uprisg sparked by a police raid at a gay bar New York Cy’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, and the tone to which Pri Month is pegged.

As they are today, members of the LGBTQ muny were disproportnately targeted by police durg the 1950s and 1960s, “the most homophobic perd Amerin history, ” says historian Hugh Ryan, thor of When Brooklyn Was Queer: A History. Donut shop that was a popular meetg place for transgenr and gay people, was the se of an uprisg agast the ntuo police harassment that the shop’s patrons endured. Trans women of lor played a key role the Augt 1966 Compton Cafeteria Rts San Francis, and a police raid on the Black Cat tavern Los Angel on New Years’ Day 1967 rulted anized public protts agast police harassment of gay, trans and genr non-nformg people.

A BLACK, GAY MAN IS CRIL CONDN AFTER BEG SHOT BY POLICE

For historian Ryan, the Haven Rt 1970, which took place at the Haven gay bar Greenwich Village, was also a landmark event and monstrat that there was a nsistency to the ancy beyond the sgular moment of Stonewall. The fact that several members of the Black Panther Party, cludg Angela Davis, Afeni Shakur and Joan Bird, had also spent time the prison speaks to the shared nnectns a broar stggle, Ryan says, as lks emerged between the Black Panther Party, the Gay Liberatn Front, radil lbians and the femist and women’s movements.

BLACK GAY UPLE SAYS STORE LLED PS ON THEM FOR BUYG NICE THGS

It was after she saw the prison how the opprsn of gay people was nnected to the opprsn of mori that Afeni Shakur went on to anize a meetg between the Black Panther Party and the Gay Liberatn Front at Jane Fonda’s penthoe apartment on the Upper East si 1970.

The rult is a narrative that dramatilly simplifi the plex relatnships between police partments and the women, people of lor and lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people wh whom the police have had historilly act relatnships.

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

Durg the first season of “The Shield, ” which aired 2002, Danni Sofer (Cathere Dent), the lone female patrol officer her precct, rallied partner Julien Lowe (Michael Jace), who was both black and a closeted gay man, to go knock heads after a police officer was murred, tellg him that “we gotta make sure the a------- know who’s charge. ” That same year, early the n of “The Wire, ” Kima Greggs (Sonja Sohn), who is black, gay and female, proved her bona fis by shg to help beat a young dg aler who knocked down an olr whe officer.

COPS TACKLE & ARRT GAY BLACK JOURNALIST DURG OH ERNOR’S PRS NFERENCE

But also suggted that gay men, particularly those who wanted to rise to the executive ranks, might feel pelled to stay closeted when the seri revealed that the abrasive Deputy Commissner William Rawls (John Doman) was gay by showg him fleetgly a gay bar.

In “Southland, ” Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlz), who was divorced om a woman, generally kept his sexual orientatn quiet at work, though toward the end of the seri, he took a homophobic partner to a gay bar to shame him out of makg anti-gay remarks. “Brooklyn Ne-Ne, ” which premiered the year “Southland” nclud s n and is now s fourth season, beme the first show to explore how attus toward gay officers have changed a sgle partment over time.

NYPD COPS KILLED A GAY BLACK MAN. THEIR UNN WANTS THE MAYOR TO DISMISS THE CHARG

And while Holt wasn’t origally wrten as black, the rult was a character whose experience as a police officer is fed not only by his gayns but also by his race — one flashback, Holt reported for duty, only for a whe tective to ask whether he was turng himself — and by his class, sce he is married to a Columbia Universy profsor who rents the police force.

GAY CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER SU, SAYS HE ENDURED HARASSMENT BY FELLOW PS

Nearly every LGBTQ person I know, regardls of age or inty has experienced some form, eher dismissive rpons to reports of hate crim to jt sual ments while on the street the Gayborhood or elsewhere. Gay men I have terviewed who have reported their experience wh hate crim attacks have disclosed abive and dismissive treatment by law enforcement that has ranged om sensive remarks to outright hostily and an attu that they brought the vlence on themselv. 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.

THE GAY ‘GHETTO BOY’ WHO BOND WH MISTER ROGERS AND CHANGED THE NEIGHBORHOOD

”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? He relled a particularly dntg cint when a fellow officer who had been patrollg Mabs Dam Park, where the new Yankee Stadium now stands, enuntered a well-known gay cisg area. C., to Sacramento, a number of progrsive LGBTQ activists, some of them too young to remember the gay police activism of the ‘80s and ‘90s, view ps to be an unwele — and even threateng — prence at pri addn to gettg ps out of pri, many of the different activist groups also have an array of social jtice mands.

However, this year members of the Gay Officers Actn League will march, as they have every year sce 1996, uniform wh their guns FORWARDRodriguez said while he knows where the protters are g om, he disagre wh their tactics. Rodriguez said when he was policg the 6th Precct, which vers much of Manhattan’s gay neighborhoods, he once saw a transgenr woman wh blood streamg down her cheek nng away om a group of men.

”NYPD Detective Brian Downey, the current print of the Gay Officers Actn League, said imagery of uniformed LGBTQ ps marchg proudly “is powerful, ” and he hop will prevent people the muny, like the trans woman Rodriguez scribed, om beg aaid of ps. It took half a century, but this LGBT Pri month, the New York police partment (NYPD) fally apologized for the famo 1969 raid on the Stonewall gay queer New Yorkers had a simple rponse: apology not accepted. “There was jt a lot of hate, ” said Iku, addg that was clear some gay people were satisfied wh marriage equaly and unterted the ntued stggl of other LGBT people: “They uld support , too, and would lose nothg om dog that … Pri is about showg up for our muny who is not shown up for, who is not heard.

GAY COP

Iku ced the work of the Black Panthers as a mol for muny gay ps aren’t weleIn San Francis, home to one of the biggt Pri paras the untry, the police partment (SFPD) has given out rabow “pri patch” for officers to wear this month, and has a “Pri SUV” that will drive the para, a spokperson said, addg that officers and their “fai and iends are lookg forward to walkg this year’s para” Pri’s theme this year is “generatns of ristance”, which some crics have argued is particularly sultg given this embrace of SFPD, which raid a queer hangout spot 1966, sparkg a rebelln agast police a rt that pre-dated Stonewall. “Kick ps and rporatns out of pri” stickers are mon around the Bay Area, spread by an activist group lled Gay Shame, ma up of mostly workg-class trans people of San Francis police partment has a ‘Pri SUV’ that will drive the para, a spokperson said.

”Ashley said the apology did not change his md that police should be unwele at Pri – cludg the gay on: “While I unrstand the stggl of black police an stutn that is racist, and I unrstand the stggl of gay officers an stutn that is still homophobic, the stutn as a whole is still opprsive to the muni. A gay black police officer who acced Stland Yard of racial and sexual discrimatn has won his se at an employment tribunal, which also found that another officer liberately leaked a "distorted acunt" of the claim to the Sun newspaper. Maxwell said he had been subjected to harassment on the grounds of sexual orientatn March 2009 when a tective om Special Branch ma ments his prence about gay men.