Gay Officers Actn League | New York

Contents:

• PRI SAID GAY COPS AREN’T WELE. THEN CAME THE BACKLASH.
• THE COPS STANDG WH, AND FOR, THE GAY COMMUNI THEY SERVE
• COMG OUT AT WORK: WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE A GAY P NEW JERSEY
• GAY POLICE OFFICER FIGHTS FOR FEELG PRI THE FORCE
• VIO RURFAC OF KG VON TELLG POLICE HE'S "GAY" TO RELOTE IN JAIL
• GAY CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER SU, SAYS HE ENDURED HARASSMENT BY FELLOW PS

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

” 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.

” 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.

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

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. Reports n be found across the Uned Stat of police allegedly g excsive force agast lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer people.

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

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. 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).

GAY POLICE OFFICER FIGHTS FOR FEELG PRI THE FORCE

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. 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.

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

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. 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.

Oral histori reuntg the nights of Stonewall suggt that the women the prison chanted “Gay Power! 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. 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.

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

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.