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

GAY POLICE OFFICER FIGHTS FOR FEELG PRI THE FORCE

Edgar Rodriguez has faced discrimatn as a gay man the NYPD, and he’s faced cricism his LGBT muny for his unwaverg pri beg a police officer. * gay guy police 10 7 *

This story was origally published on May 3, Rodriguez remembers when, as a rookie police officer, he saw an olr lleague fly to a rage at the statn after enunterg gay men cisg a park. Rodriguez knew he was gay om a young age. The bans have been hotly bated and rema Toronto members vote not to allow police to march annual paraPri Toronto -chair rigns amid fallout om police banMarchg the Pri para 'changed my life tremendoly'A few years after wnsg homophobia on the job, a lleague ved Rodriguez to march New York Cy's Pri para wh the Gay Officers Actn League (GOAL), a then-fledglg activist group wh the NYPD workg to curb homophobia the force.

Rodriguez and others om GOAL eventually took the NYPD to urt, succsfully sug for the abily to march the para uniform, celebrate Pri at police headquarters, and te g officers about the LGBT muny Seeg LGBT officers marchg uniform for the first time gave everyone the sense that, 'Wow this is a legimate human ndn to be gay. Even ps are gay. "Seeg LGBT officers marchg uniform for the first time gave everyone the sense that, 'Wow this is a legimate human ndn to be gay.

While he's proud of his work, he acknowledg that racism, sexism and homophobia are still prent police culture today. "I've seen ps at a time when HIV was ragg and still a ighteng thg, that would immediately put their hands – their bare hands – and stop a gay person om bleedg to ath.

NYPD IS VTIGATG A STRG OF ASSLTS POTENTIALLY LKED TO ATHS OF 2 GAY MEN

The New York Cy Police Department nfirmed Monday that is vtigatg a strg of robberi and asslts that may be nnected to the aths of two gay * gay guy police 10 7 *

The New York Cy Police Department nfirmed Monday that is vtigatg a strg of robberi and asslts that may be nnected to the aths of two gay men earlier this year shortly after they left gay bars Manhattan's Hell's Kchen neighborhood. His fay prevly told NBC News that approximately $20, 000 had been draed om his bank acunts and that they believed he was Umberger and Jul Ramirez were dgged and killed separate cints followg viss to New York Cy gay Clary / Fay photoAbout a month later, Umberger, a 33-year-old polil nsultant, was found ad after he and two unintified men left another popular Hell's Kchen gay bar, the Q.

However, one of the acced, a gay man who remaed anonymo his terview wh Project Q, said he was targeted on Grdr. "Gay sex stgs are not a thg of the past, however. And data secury gay apps remas a ncern anti-LGBTQ areas of the world, where thori uld e that rmatn to monor and entrap people.

” On a rooftop at the end of the day, after some drks, he lled home and told his father that he was gay. So I uld see the Herage of Pri para as this thg for whe gay men, mcly, glter. “Gay liberatn, ” she said, “meant revolutn.

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

” 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.

“My God, what a bate over this, ” said Andy Humm, a longtime -host of “Gay USA, ” a TV news program. In the past week, he told them, he had received onle msag of hate nsistently om whe gay men, to the extent that his fay feared for his safety.

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.