Diversity in Law Enforcement

Recently, I’ve been put on a Diversity Committee for my agency, and it’s giving me a whole different view of things in law enforcement when it comes to our (the LGBTQIA, not the leather) community.   Yes, folks – I’m part of that community.   I’m the oft forgot B – a bisexual.  Fence sitters.  “Pretenders”.  Etcetera.   I don’t put it up on my profile because, frankly, most of you are excluding me anyway.

Before anything I want to acknowledge; there’s an issue of “how much is enough, and how much is ‘recruiting for the sake of numbers’” within diversity groups in the law enforcement community.   I assume those same questions extend to other diversity groups – but I’m sticking with the one I know.  

As the unofficial representative of the LGBTQIA community (I joined to be the token Native American – I just seem to have become the voice for us instead) – what I see is that even those members of our community who are in the Law Enforcement aren’t often willing to step up and say it. 

Yes, there are gay pride groups in law enforcement.   They might have 100 officers.   In a force of 7000.   Do.  The.   Math.   *rolls eyes* 

So the stereotype of heterosexually dominated law enforcement continues – we’re not stepping up and challenging it.   We’re not joining the force to really enact change.  I’m not saying throw your orientation in anyone’s face – a cop is first a cop, and second a race or a gender.   That’s the way it should be.   Sorry (not sorry) if that offends your sensibilities.  

Again though, “how much is enough, and how much is just for the sake of numbers”?   I don’t hide (although I know of at least 8 who do, in a sub-division of only 47 active officers) who I am or how I identify.   I don’t wear a pride flag or shout it from the roof tops – but I’m vocal when the issue seriously crops up, or when the trans or queer derogatory jokes start. 

Here’s the hard part, though.

The LGBTQIA community has a serious distrust issue with Law Enforcement.   Given the history of government using law enforcement to enforce their (generally out dated and anti-civil rights) attitudes in the past, law enforcement has a bad rep with our community.   I get that.  We’ve even been asked to withdraw from Pride Parades in different cities due to “sensitivities” in the community.  It’s hard to move forward in the face of history.  That’s why a lot of us are willing to face exclusion from our own friends in the community rather than fight the issue.

But guys?    We’re not thrilled with our orders 90% of the time.   There’s a reason we call it being “volun-told” when we’re sent out to do crowd control.  Sure there are old school guys in the system – but that’s not even a double-digit percentage of us.   The rest of us are following orders.  We don’t set the laws (or often agree with them), we just get used for enforcement.   Law.   Enforcement.   Get it?  

It's also hard to advance to where we can do some good, when you argue against orders in a paramilitary (which we are) organization.   So regardless of what we think of the laws about gay marriage, legalizing marijuana, transgender or transsexual rights or sex workers’ criminality (you’d be surprised what most officers ACTUALLY think about those) – if you start an anti-fa riot, we’re going to put it down.   That’s the law, whether we agree with your complaints or not.  Law.  Enforcement.   We follow orders given by lawful authority, no matter how we feel about them. 

To be fair, much of the law enforcement community isn’t helping things.   They don’t understand the LGBTQIA community.  We get so much training and re-training that we just don’t have the bandwidth to keep up on the latest trends in every single community we serve.  We have to focus on the dangerous ones – and thankfully, our LGBTQIA community isn’t on that list.  

Still, officers sense the reticence or the outright distrust, and don’t react too well to it.    Folks – most people who act that way get classified as a threat until we can sort things out.   It isn’t because of some anti-first amendment crap – it’s because we’ve been in too many situations where that attitude is the warning signs for a knife or a gun.  We just want to go home in one piece at night, the same as you do. 

We act as politely as we can in a situation – is it too much to ask for the same?  Yes, there are bad apples.   Guess what – prove that they did it and we hate them even more than you do.  

There’s also the LGBTQIA community’s tendency to outright ally with anti-police organizations.  Sorry (not sorry) but if you think BLM isn’t anti-police, you haven’t been paying attention. 

So where does that leave us?    Where does that leave members of the community who wear a badge?

Where does that leave us as a community, mistrusting and antagonizing law enforcement – and where does that leave law enforcement, misunderstanding or actively mocking our community?

Right now, most of us face the choice of being one side or the other.   That’s not healthy or helpful.  

I don’t have the answers on this one.   I’ve tried to make the case, on both sides of the aisle, for peaceful conversation and understanding – and I’m just getting static here, folks.  

Somebody tell me – how am I, as a part of our community, supposed to support a community that doesn’t want to support me? 

Because now I’m on a Diversity Committee.   I’m trying hard here to get them to start using more gender and trans inclusive language, and to reach out and create educational training for our officers.   I’ve been arguing for over a year for an in-house process for officers (and felons or suspects being arrested) in transition that respects their privacy.   I’m working with officers who don’t understand our community, to try and create programs that will link them up with their local resources, to serve their LGBTQIA citizens better.  

And while I’m doing it – my local community is selling me and my brother officers out during pride month. 

And that, folks – is a bitch.