Members of the Gay Officers Action League made a return trip this week to The COLOURS Organization to share stories and build bridges — and impart a holiday gift.
Three members of GOAL — which includes LGBT and ally law-enforcement officers from around the region — stopped by COLOURS’ Social Exchange group Tuesday night, which is geared toward ages 16-25. The officers brought a $300 check for COLOURS’ youth programming, collected from donations by GOAL officers.
GOAL officers make an annual holiday donation, and picked COLOURS as this year’s beneficiary after meeting with youth members there in October. That event was conceived of by the sergeant of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Recruitment Unit, a GOAL member, who was eager to expand the department’s recruitment efforts to LGBT youth of color.
“We took three officers and shared our experiences of being LGBT officers of color,” said GOAL member and Deputy Sheriff Dante Austin about the fall meeting.
Austin noted the youth were surprised when the officers came out to them.
“When we first walked in, they saw our guns and our uniform pants but once we got up and spoke, they didn’t know that we were LGBT,” Austin said. “They were shocked. One of our officers is a trans man, and they were blown away.”
Austin said he was grateful for the opportunity to help the youth put a face to LGBT officers.
“It was a great experience and definitely different for them,” Austin said. “They had never had interactions like that with law-enforcement officers, and we see that so often. Representation is so important. Young black kids see black officers and young girls see female officers, but LGBT youth don’t know who we are. We don’t walk around with a rainbow on our heads. So we have to go out to them like this.”
On Tuesday, more than a dozen Social Exchange members shared stories over pizza and cookies with Austin, Sgt. Ryan and Police Officer Murrell.
“It was great to have the officers in the room,” said Jarrett Thompson, assistant prevention navigator at COLOURS who helped organize the event. “Whatever charge the youth may have felt — because of police brutality or a lack of support in the LGBTQ community, especially with trans lives, black lives, LGBTQ lives being at high risk — this was an opportunity to engage with the officers in an educational atmosphere. And in a social atmosphere; after the chat, on a human level they were able to talk and say, ‘Hey, how are you? What’s your name?’”
Thompson said the money will be used for programming for Social Exchange, which provides educational and dance opportunities Tuesdays at COLOURS.
“We have an educational piece before we allow the engaging youth to vogue,” Thompson said. “The point is for them to express their thoughts, their feelings, their emotions through dance.”
This week’s GOAL visit opened the door to future collaboration between the programs, Thompson said.
“It was great to have them here and we look forward to working with them more in the future.”