Lessons That Change Attitudes

Sixty sullen faces greeted three gay men and three lesbians Friday at the San Diego Police Department’s latest session of “Gay 101,” a two-hour police academy seminar on how law enforcement officers should deal with the gay community.

One recruit, Edward Jones, sitting in the fourth row, shook his head in disbelief as Scott Fulkerson, Leslie Horn, M. Corrine Mackey, Karen Marshall, Albert Bell and David Rubin discussed the particulars of growing up gay.

They spoke of knowing early in their lives that heterosexual relationships were out of the question, but after struggling to tell their parents and eventually coming out of the closet, settling into satisfaction with their decision.

But Jones had a question.

“I’m straight and I may bed one woman a month or 50 a month, you can’t tell,” he said. “With the guy over there in the blue, it’s obvious (he’s gay). But the guy in the suit . . . I was shocked. Why is it you can tell with some people and then you hear about some football players, and you say, ‘Oh wow!’ ”

Bell, the man dressed in blue and a county health worker who treats patients with the AIDS virus, caught Jones’ drift.

“What I heard you saying is that it’s obvious that I’m gay,” Bell said. “That’s because I don’t have it in me to act a certain way. I am the way I am and I take what you said as a compliment.”

The give-and-take ended with a flurry of questions, ranging from the genetic makeup of gays and lesbians to the ways in which gay couples share household duties.

Recruits were told that if they carried anti-gay “baggage,” they should “leave it at the door or leave law enforcement altogether,” said Matt Weathersby, community relations assistant to the chief of police. “Our job is to treat people with dignity and respect.”

One recruit said he was confused by the length and purpose of the class. Why not just spend five minutes telling recruits that police officers should respect everyone, regardless of who they are?

“The gay and lesbian community is the only minority group that it’s still OK to discriminate against,” said Fulkerson, a clinical psychologist. “The majority of gay and lesbian people are afraid to go to the police. But the San Diego Police Department is going the extra mile to change that.”

By the end of the class, recruit Jones, who is black, told the group he had taken on a new perspective.

“I don’t like what you do and don’t care for what you do but I can deal with you as professionals,” he said. “I appreciate this class because until you have been shoved out of the way at counter space or had someone clutch a purse extra tight as you walk by, you can’t talk about discrimination.”