A list of some of the great people who came out of the closet in 2012.
City council appoints Minneapolis’ first female, openly gay police chief
December 5, 2012 Public Safety, YCBAThe Minneapolis city council on Friday confirmed 25-year veteran officer Janee Harteau as the city’s new Chief of Police, and in doing so Harteau becomes the first woman and first openly gay officer to serve as police chief.
The council voted 11-0 to confirm Harteau, 48, after council members and Mayor R.T. Rybak gushed praise for the new chief.
This video is an advertisement supporting Amendment 1 which would bring marriage equality to the people of Maine. It is about an openly gay firefighter in Maine and his colleagues who support his right to marry. It is also a great example of an openly gay firefighter who has full support from his department.
Al is a Captain with the Pembroke Pines Police Department. He has had a distinguished career in law enforcement and has been open about his sexuality throughout most of his time on the police force. He is a great example for young LGBT individuals to follow.
Officers of the Portland Police Department let LGBTQ youth know it does get better.
Check out some of the talented LGBT members of the National Parks Service. They have created a website to show the diversity which exists in our National Parks. Thank you to all of them for sharing their stories.
The following is an article I was asked to write for a website called Fire 20/20 which serves to promote diversity in the fire and EMS service.
Active recruitment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, LGBT, individuals in the fire service is virtually unheard of. It is like planning a big steak dinner at your busiest station and actually getting to enjoy it in its entirety without getting a call. Granted, not all departments recruit for the purpose of diversifying their ranks. However, amongst those who do, I have not been able to find one who targets LGBT individuals the way law enforcement does. What may be the reason behind this lack of outreach? Are we as a fire service blind to the potential this group of individuals can bring to our ranks? Are we as LGBT individuals blind to the possibilities of a career spent serving our fellow citizens? Let’s exam and hopefully dispel some of these myths in an effort to be more inclusive of LGBT individuals as possible new recruits.
“Build a great big, large fence – 50 or 100 miles long – and put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals, and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. Feed them. And you know in a few years, they’ll die out. You know why? They can’t reproduce.”
These words were spoken from the pulpit by Charles Worley, a preacher in the town of Maiden, NC this past Mother’s Day. This sermon was given after the citizens of North Carolina voted to approved Amendment 1 which dictates marriage is only between one man and one woman. Now, this type of amendment is nothing new and has been passed by a number of other states, but what makes this one a little more hateful is it also disallows civil unions and domestic partnerships of all kinds, gay or straight, while terminating those already in existence.
