For the First Time, Police Recruit at Gay Pride Festival

Maria Ceja, 21, toyed with the idea of becoming a police officer for three years. Last weekend, she finally felt comfortable enough to pick up a few brochures about police work.

The information was available at the Long Beach Lesbian and Gay Pride Festival. For the first time in its nine-year history, the festival had police recruiting booths set up among the AIDS-awareness stands and the disco tent.

During the weekend event, Long Beach police signed up 43 prospective officers, and about 90 others stopped by to ask questions and take applications.

“I’ve always been hesitant to look into this because of my sexuality,” said Ceja, who came to the festival with a female partner. “I don’t think I would have looked into it on my own, so I’m glad they’re here.”

Most people who stopped at the booths asked about discrimination. Ceja, one of the few who put her name and address on a list to take a Civil Service exam, said, “I’m realistic. I know there’s discrimination. I just want to know if I can deal with it.”

Although eight local departments were invited, only Long Beach, Gardena and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department attended the festival.

The festival attracted 40,000 fair-goers, about 10,000 more than last year, police said. Festival organizers estimated that they raised more than $50,000 for nonprofit health organizations, primarily for cancer and AIDS research.

The festival paid $35,000 for police security, but four officers staffed the recruiting booth at no charge.

“We’re happy to be out here,” said Long Beach Lt. Columbus Lowe, who runs the police academy.

He assured those visiting the booth that they would never be identified as having signed up at the festival.

But Lowe declined to speculate about whether any gay or lesbian officers are now on the Long Beach police force.

“There would be a whole lot of problems if I said it was one way or another,” said Lowe, who added that no officers are openly homosexual.

However, one Long Beach officer at the recruiting booth, Maria L. Mendez, said she is aware of gay and lesbian officers.

“They do their job in a very professional way, and it hasn’t made any difference to me and I’m straight,” Mendez said. “I think times are changing.”

However, times have not changed enough for an African-American lesbian who attended the festival and secretly revealed her police badge.

“I’m part of three minorities, two I can’t hide, but until there are people in management positions who are openly gay, I can’t be open,” she said.

Long Beach Civil Service assistant analyst Cheryl L. Abbate said she has attended the festival for years, but for the first time she was there to answer civil service questions at the police booth. All police officers must pass Civil Service exams.

“It’s about time we offer information to all parts of the community,” Abbate said. “We need to let people know that there’s no screening whatsoever having to do with sexual orientation.”

The festival also had more politicians participate in the parade than ever before. In past years, usually just one politician agreed to be in the parade. This year, congressional candidate Tom Nolan was grand marshal. Others who rode in the parade included Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles Board of Education member Jeff Horton, Long Beach Councilman Evan Anderson Braude and Councilman-elect Alan Lowenthal.

The festival’s community grand marshal, the Rev. Mary Dusty Pruitt, said she tried for six years to get police to recruit gay and lesbian officers.

“It took them a long time to respond to us,” said the senior pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of Long Beach.

Festival president Mary Martinez said, “Momentum was building for this kind of an outreach by the police, and they were ready to do it this year. We got a lot of positive feedback.”

Next to the Long Beach police booth, Sheriff’s Department community relations specialist Perry Bovie touted the benefits of his department.

“We have admittedly gay deputies, and there are probably more gays in law enforcement than are willing to admit it, but I believe it’s easier to be more open about it,” Bovie said.

However, even the vice president of the festival, who helped persuade police to join this year’s event, said she can’t use her name because she fears repercussions at her job.

“That’s the way it is in this world, that’s all,” she said.