Coming Out From Behind The Badge (eBook)

LGBTQ+ Awareness for Law Enforcement and All First Responders

Greg Miraglia (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
346 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-7209-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Coming Out from Behind the Badge is a book intended to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) law enforcement and other professional first responders who are seeking a way to 'come out' and be successful on the job. It is also intended to educate heterosexuals (persons attracted to the opposite sex) and cisgender people (persons who identify their gender in a way that is consistent with their birth sex) to better understand differences in sexual orientation and gender identity and how to support their colleagues. In addition, this edition of Coming Out from Behind the Badge was written to support students who are preparing for a career in law enforcement and those already in the field seeking a better understanding of a large segment of the community which law enforcement serves.

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Coming Out from Behind the Badge is a book intended to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) law enforcement and other professional first responders who are seeking a way to "e;come out"e; and be successful on the job. It is also intended to educate heterosexuals (persons attracted to the opposite sex) and cisgender people (persons who identify their gender in a way that is consistent with their birth sex) to better understand differences in sexual orientation and gender identity and how to support their colleagues. In addition, this edition of Coming Out from Behind the Badge was written to support students who are preparing for a career in law enforcement and those already in the field seeking a better understanding of a large segment of the community which law enforcement serves.

Textauszug

SEXUAL ORIENTATION,
GENDER IDENTITY,
AND INTERSECTIONALITY

There is a great deal of mythology out there about sexual orientation and gender identity, how these two aspects of personality relate, and how they intersect with other identities we all have. Unless you take a specific course of study on the subject, most people never hear any detail about what sexual orientation and gender identity are. The two are simply not taught in school, but we all have a sexual orientation and a gender identity and so do the citizens that law enforcement serves. So here are the lessons you should have received in school.

Your sexual orientation is about your attraction to someone else. It is not only the gender you are attracted to but also the color, shape, age, size, and look. Sexual orientation is about the heart, who gets you excited, makes your heart pound, and who do you love. There is evidence of samesex attraction and sexual activity throughout the history of mankind. However, science only began to examine human sexuality in the 1860s. In fact, German scientists were the first to define sexuality with terms to distinguish opposite sexual attraction from same-sex sexual attraction.

The word “homosexual” was first coined in 1869 by German scientists. Richard von Krafft-Ebing and Magnus Hirschfeld were the two most notable scientists who first studied human sexuality, and they ended up disagreeing on whether homosexuality was a normal human difference or a mental disorder. Probably the most famous study of human sexuality was completed by Dr. Alfred Kinsey between 1948 and 1953. Kinsey’s work showed that sexual orientation was not simply being heterosexual (straight) or homosexual (gay) but rather an infinite spectrum of naturally occurring variation. He created a scale based on sexual history data he collected that ranges from 0 (exclusively heterosexual) to 6 (exclusively homosexual). Kinsey proved that the variety found in human sexuality is similar to the varieties of hair color, eye color, and facial features and is naturally occurring regardless of other group features, such as race, nationality, and birth sex.

Human sexuality (sexual attraction) is not something we choose. Although science has not found the gene or hormone that specifically determines human sexuality, it is widely accepted in the medical and psychological community that one’s sexuality is definitely NOT a choice. Homosexuality can be found in over 1500 other mammal species. The one recognized difference in humans is our ability to choose whether to act on our sexual attraction or not. In other words, human sexual attraction is not a matter of choice, but how we act on that attraction very much is a choice.

Some gay men choose to live a “straight lifestyle” for many reasons including fear of coming out, fear of losing a career, family expectations, and other social pressures. Just because a gay man marries a woman or a gay woman marries a man, it doesn’t mean that person chose to become straight. Their inherent sexual orientation does not change because of certain life choices. Unfortunately, in many cases like this, the urge to act on an inherited sexual attraction can be overpowering and has led men, for example, to look for onetime encounters in public restrooms or online. For proof of this behavior, all you have to do is search the internet for stories about politicians, religious leaders, and other famous people who have been “caught” with call boys, prostitutes, or other anonymous sexual partners. No matter the person, this situation is always tragic for everyone involved, and it can all be blamed on homophobia.

The opposite is also true. I know many heterosexual men who have chosen to engage in gay sex. It may be for money or for simply a lack of opportunity with an opposite-sex partner. In prisons, when men or women only have access to members of the same gender, they may choose to engage in same-sex activity because it is the only source of sexual satisfaction available. That choice to engage in same-sex behavior does not make the person gay and it does not change their inherent sexual orientation. Younger men and women may experiment, most commonly in their teens and twenties, with members of the same sex either because their sexual orientation is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum or out of curiosity. Kinsey’s research showed that 37 percent of men had had at least one homosexual experience that resulted in an orgasm. But this onetime experience doesn’t mean that the individual is gay or even bisexual.

There are also many men and women who do not identify as being gay or lesbian but who regularly or exclusively engage in sex with members of the same gender. Someone who is sexually attracted to others of the same gender but identifies as “straight” isn’t really heterosexual. In communities of color and conservative faiths, identifying as “gay,” “lesbian,” or “queer” may mean rejection by family and excommunication by the church. For many individuals, they cannot see themselves in their own image of what “gay,” “lesbian,” or “queer” looks like. Choosing to identify as “straight” doesn’t make a bisexual or homosexual person truly heterosexual. The identity, word, or label used has no impact on one’s inherent sexual orientation and changing the word we use doesn’t change who we are.

Kinsey’s study was the first to provide data that one out of ten people is homosexual. But later studies and surveys suggest that this number is much greater and appears to be increasing with each new generation. According to a 2021 Gallup poll, 20.8 percent of those people born between 1997 and 2003 identify as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender compared 10.5 percent of those people born between 1981 and 1996. According to the same Gallup poll, 15 percent of the adult population in the United States is part of the LGBTQ+ community. These numbers are significant because they represent self-identifying responses rather than those derived from an interview like the one Kinsey used.

In 1948, when Kinsey conducted his research, homosexual behavior was illegal across the United States. Homosexuality was considered a mental illness and every religion considered it a grave sin. In addition, Kinsey’s study measured self-admitted sexual experience, not self-admitted sexual desire. It’s no wonder that the numbers vary so much from 1948 to 2021. Of course a lot has changed since 1948. Homosexuality was decriminalized and declared “normal” by the American Psychiatric Association, and generally, being “out” and self-identifying as something other than straight or cisgender is more widely accepted by society with far less risk.

The important points here are to understand that sexual attraction is not a choice and that there is more variety in the spectrum of sexual orientation than we have words to describe. The terms people use to describe their sexuality are ever-changing as people try to find a word that best represents their sexual orientation and is comfortable to use. While science is responsible for creating the terms “homosexual,” “bisexual,” and “heterosexual,” many other terms have been used to label sexual orientation. Many of the words have had negative connotations over the years and have been used as forms of violence against nonheterosexual people. This issue of language and social acceptance has also complicated the measuring of the variety of sexual orientation. For example, if someone is attracted to members of the same sex but is not comfortable with the term “gay” or “queer” or doesn’t see themselves in a way that they understand that term to mean, that person may deny being gay even though their sexual attraction leans in part or entirely toward members of the same sex. And because sexual orientation is not something you can see, it can be easily hidden.

The words we use to identify all aspects of ourselves are important and must fit our own understanding of that word. Terms are important, because they help us see how we relate to the rest of the world and how the world relates to us. Time has changed the meaning and social acceptance of words, and this evolution even further complicates our ability to measure the real prevalence of various sexual orientations. There are certainly more slang terms people use to identify their sexual orientation, and each has an important history.

The word “gay” has origins in the seventeenth century and meant, in words we know today, “happy,” “joyful,” or “carefree.” A hundred years later, the word evolved to mean “uninhibited” or “addicted” and was used to label those who engaged in frequent sexual behavior. In the 1800s, “gay” was used for prostitutes and to refer to, particularly, men who had sex with female prostitutes. In the early 1900s, homosexual activity became more visible and defined, and “gay” was the label for deviant, immoral, and illegal sexual behavior including homosexuality. Of course today “gay” is a popular term used by men and women who are attracted to members of the same sex. It is also a term used to describe the larger nonheterosexual community—“gay community.”

Women have long used “lesbian” as a term to describe their samesex attraction. The word has origins in ancient Greece and the island of Lesbos. It is a word that has remained connected with women who are sexually attracted to women, as well as with feminism. Although some women choose to use the word “gay” or “queer” to describe their sexual orientation, I’ve never met a man who has used the word “lesbian” to describe their orientation—except, perhaps, a straight guy who enjoys hyper-expressing his attraction to...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.6.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft
• ISBN-10: 1-6678-7209-5 / 1667872095
• ISBN-13: 978-1-6678-7209-4 / 9781667872094