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•
rights group refers to it as The Hairpin
Drop Heard Around the World."
A decade later, the New York
Police Department began allowing gay
police officers to join the force. Today
the department actually enlists the help
of the gay community to recruit gay
police officers into the department In
particular, they seek out auxiliary
police to work within the gay communities as a sort of community policing
effort Clearly, a lot has changed in the
time between the revolution and its
resolution.
Pedro Velazquez, a New York City
Transit Authority officer, explains, "It's
really a natural progression of our
rights. We started out by being thrown
in jail because we were lesbian and gay.
Then people started realizing that we
are just like everyone else. We want the
same things and also we are capable of
doing the same jobs.**
Despite the progressively changing
attitudes of the average New Yorker, it
as a directive by former Mayor
ward Koch that opened the doors for
gays to seek public service jobs in the
city. Koch offered protection under the
law to homosexuals being discriminated
against in public service jobs.
All in all, says Velazquez, it's not
that police departments across America
have become more liberal-minded.
Instead, he says, the gay constituency
has become more vocal. The real push
to recruit gay police officers has come
not from within the department, but
from the gay community.
For years, members of GOAL —
New York's Gay Officers Action
League — recruited on their own. In
1987, for the first time in the history of
the department New York City police
officials approached the gay membership group for help in an official recruiting effort. Assistant Police Commissioner for Community Affairs James
Hargrove views the action as a sign to
gays that they will not be discriminated
against by the department
Not everyone got the message, how-
Ver. When GOAL formed and attempted to join Brotherhood in Action — the
umbrella organization of other fraternal,
ethnic and religious police groups in
Gay Cops
New York — the various associations
balked at having the gay organization
join. Rather than allow the homosexual
group to become part of the umbrella
association, Brotherhood in Action
changed its name to the Corporation of
Police Societies and sought private status. The members chose to give up
their right to meet during work hours
rather than allow GOAL to gain membership, even though the NYPD supported GOAL'S efforts.
"There were
some concerns
expressed by the
West Hollywood City
Council that they
wanted the Sheriff's
Department to
specifically go into
the community
and recruit gays."
—Dpty. Raul Perez
Los Angeles
Sheriffs Academy
West Side's (Same) Story
On the West Coast, the story has
been much the same. Like New York,
California maintains its own fraternal
association for gay law enforcement
workers: The Golden State Peace Officers Association.
California also put forth legislation
governing the employment of gays in
its cities. To guarantee the rights of
gays in public service, the California
Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that
"coming out of the closet" was a political statement, and therefore would be
covered under the state's anti-discrimination laws.
In 1987, an incident similar to
Stonewall occurred at the One Way
Bar located in a section of Los Angeles
heavily populated by gays. Police and
fire officials looked into a complaint of
overcrowding, only to find the establishment loaded with the town's most
influential gay residents. Just as in
New York two decades before, the gay
community cried harassment and
demanded relief from city officials, A
gay councilman from the area said, "It
looks like the old pattern."
As a result West Hollywood City
Council members hinted that they
would not renew their annual $8 .5 million contract with the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department if the department
did not make an effort to recruit homosexuals into the Sheriff's Department
According to Deputy Raul Perez of
the Los Angeles Sheriff's Academy,
"There were some concerns expressed
by the West Hollywood City Council
that they wanted the Sheriff's Department to specifically go into the community and recruit gays."
According to local newspaper
reports, the Sheriff's Department
placed ads in gay publications, and
even set up a recruitment stand across
the street from a known gay bar. Still,
Perez explains, the current policy
remains very understated. He says the
department does not specifically
recruit gays "just like we don't go out
and say we are recruiting Hispanics or
Blacks or Asians. We just say we're
recruiting and minorities are encouraged to apply."
At the time of the initial recruitment
effort, deputies of the Sheriff's Department were petitioning the court to
require blood tests for inmates after a
Sheriff's Deputy died of AIDS. "There
were fights with these particular
inmates, and they had no idea whether
they were carrying this particular disease," explains Perez. One deputy at
the jail described the situation as
"tense," with many deputies afraid to
eat the food prepared by inmates for
fear of contracting AIDS.
About the same time, Mitchell
Grobeson was stopped by a Los Angeles deputy on a West Hollywood street
At one point, the deputy checked
Grobeson's sports bag, discovered he
was a Los Angeles Police Department
sergeant and kicked off what would
Object Description
| Title | The LAPD and the lesbian and gay community, 1991-05-01 |
| Description | Public session, 1991 May 1: Material from organizations, 2.1: Report - "The LAPD and the lesbian and gay community - written testimony submitted to the special Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department" by Jon W. Davidson, senior staff counsel and attorney for lesbian and gay rights ACLU foundation of Southern California, 1991 May 1. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Coverage date | 1991-05-01 |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date created | 1991-05-01 |
| Type | texts |
| Format | 284 p. |
| Format (aat) | reports |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Public Sessions |
| Box and folder | box 25, folder 1-2 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box25-01_02 |
Description
| Title | The LAPD and the lesbian and gay community, p. 66 |
| Format (imt) | image/tiff |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | • rights group refers to it as The Hairpin Drop Heard Around the World." A decade later, the New York Police Department began allowing gay police officers to join the force. Today the department actually enlists the help of the gay community to recruit gay police officers into the department In particular, they seek out auxiliary police to work within the gay communities as a sort of community policing effort Clearly, a lot has changed in the time between the revolution and its resolution. Pedro Velazquez, a New York City Transit Authority officer, explains, "It's really a natural progression of our rights. We started out by being thrown in jail because we were lesbian and gay. Then people started realizing that we are just like everyone else. We want the same things and also we are capable of doing the same jobs.** Despite the progressively changing attitudes of the average New Yorker, it as a directive by former Mayor ward Koch that opened the doors for gays to seek public service jobs in the city. Koch offered protection under the law to homosexuals being discriminated against in public service jobs. All in all, says Velazquez, it's not that police departments across America have become more liberal-minded. Instead, he says, the gay constituency has become more vocal. The real push to recruit gay police officers has come not from within the department, but from the gay community. For years, members of GOAL — New York's Gay Officers Action League — recruited on their own. In 1987, for the first time in the history of the department New York City police officials approached the gay membership group for help in an official recruiting effort. Assistant Police Commissioner for Community Affairs James Hargrove views the action as a sign to gays that they will not be discriminated against by the department Not everyone got the message, how- Ver. When GOAL formed and attempted to join Brotherhood in Action — the umbrella organization of other fraternal, ethnic and religious police groups in Gay Cops New York — the various associations balked at having the gay organization join. Rather than allow the homosexual group to become part of the umbrella association, Brotherhood in Action changed its name to the Corporation of Police Societies and sought private status. The members chose to give up their right to meet during work hours rather than allow GOAL to gain membership, even though the NYPD supported GOAL'S efforts. "There were some concerns expressed by the West Hollywood City Council that they wanted the Sheriff's Department to specifically go into the community and recruit gays." —Dpty. Raul Perez Los Angeles Sheriffs Academy West Side's (Same) Story On the West Coast, the story has been much the same. Like New York, California maintains its own fraternal association for gay law enforcement workers: The Golden State Peace Officers Association. California also put forth legislation governing the employment of gays in its cities. To guarantee the rights of gays in public service, the California Supreme Court ruled in 1979 that "coming out of the closet" was a political statement, and therefore would be covered under the state's anti-discrimination laws. In 1987, an incident similar to Stonewall occurred at the One Way Bar located in a section of Los Angeles heavily populated by gays. Police and fire officials looked into a complaint of overcrowding, only to find the establishment loaded with the town's most influential gay residents. Just as in New York two decades before, the gay community cried harassment and demanded relief from city officials, A gay councilman from the area said, "It looks like the old pattern." As a result West Hollywood City Council members hinted that they would not renew their annual $8 .5 million contract with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department if the department did not make an effort to recruit homosexuals into the Sheriff's Department According to Deputy Raul Perez of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Academy, "There were some concerns expressed by the West Hollywood City Council that they wanted the Sheriff's Department to specifically go into the community and recruit gays." According to local newspaper reports, the Sheriff's Department placed ads in gay publications, and even set up a recruitment stand across the street from a known gay bar. Still, Perez explains, the current policy remains very understated. He says the department does not specifically recruit gays "just like we don't go out and say we are recruiting Hispanics or Blacks or Asians. We just say we're recruiting and minorities are encouraged to apply." At the time of the initial recruitment effort, deputies of the Sheriff's Department were petitioning the court to require blood tests for inmates after a Sheriff's Deputy died of AIDS. "There were fights with these particular inmates, and they had no idea whether they were carrying this particular disease," explains Perez. One deputy at the jail described the situation as "tense," with many deputies afraid to eat the food prepared by inmates for fear of contracting AIDS. About the same time, Mitchell Grobeson was stopped by a Los Angeles deputy on a West Hollywood street At one point, the deputy checked Grobeson's sports bag, discovered he was a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant and kicked off what would |
| Filename | indep-box25-01_02~066.tif |
| Archival file | Volume82/indep-box25-01_02~066.tif |
