"The most consistent and smartest thinking and writing about progressive politics isn't happening in Sacramento, but being churned out day after day on sites and by organizations like Calitics, Orange County Progressive, and the California Budget Project." - CalBuzz
(Also at Nevada Progressive, but I figured y'all would also be interested in this)
I found a great story in today's Salt Lake Tribune, one I wish I could read in the paper more often.
As a child, Kerry Bell dreamed of growing up to become a policeman -- both a police officer and a man.
Becoming a cop was relatively simple -- Bell joined the Bountiful Police Department 14 years ago. Becoming a man took more time.
Born female, Bell came out as transgender about a year and a half ago and started a transition to a new life as a man. He always had felt male, but did not think switching genders was a viable option until he saw transgender people gaining wider acceptance, along with advances in medical technology.
Surprisingly, the 42-year-old -- working in what many perceive as a super-macho culture -- says he did not fret about telling the police chief or his co-workers to start referring to him as "he," not "she."
"I wasn't worried about coming out at work," says Bell, who has had hormone treatments and surgeries. "I've worked for Bountiful for 14 years. I know everybody I work with."
Although some employees have trouble remembering to use masculine pronouns, Bountiful Police Chief Tom Ross says, "everyone's done a great job of accepting Kerry and staying focused on why we're here in the first place."
Bell, a corporal and SWAT member, is a "well-rounded police officer," Ross adds. "We're glad that he works here."
As we've talked about before, transgender people still face horrible burdens of discrimination. It's worse in states like Nevada, where our state anti-discrimination laws don't cover gender identity, and even worse in Utah where their state has no anti-LGBT-inclusive discrimination laws whatsoever. So it's really encouraging to see more LGBT police officers come out in Utah and serve proudly.
And honestly, it's good to see more police departments forge good relationships with the community for a change.
That many LGBT officers now serve openly at several Utah law-enforcement agencies speaks volumes to how far society has progressed, says Salt Lake City Capt. Kyle Jones, a founding member of the [LGBT Public Safety Committee].
"Twenty years ago, they wouldn't have been [welcome]," says Jones, who was inspired to get involved with the LGBT community after his son came out as gay. "The current crop of officers, by and large, don't give it a second thought."
Jones, along with other committee members, recruits potential new officers at the annual Utah Pride Festival for the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"Our department has tried for years to recruit from the populations that we represent," Jones says. "Anywhere from 8 to 12 percent of [Salt Lake City] is thought to be LGBT so we should have 8 to 12 percent of our cops who are LGBT."
Long before Stonewall, our LGBT community has had a rocky relationship with the cops at best. One need not look further than the recent Fort Worth bar raids and Newport Beach Police homophobia scandal to see that tensions still exist and many queer folk still think they have good reason not to trust the cops. This may become even more of a problem, as homophobic hate crimesare on the rise and Orange County's LGBT community will need to work with law enforcement to stop the violence.
Hopefully with more LGBT police officers joining the ranks and police departments becoming more accepting of this, the often antagonistic relationship between the police and the community can change. It needs to if our community is to trust the police to be our public servants and keep us safe as well.
Already facing dramatic budget cuts from drops in sales tax, hotel tax, and property tax, local cities will need to cut public safety - cops on the street. It's the lion's share of their budget, and they'll need to cut into law enforcement to cover Republican plans to raid local government revenues.
Orange County cities will lose the equivalent of 600 cops on the street for one year, not counting money that will be lost by county sheriffs.
After voters rejected one more round of fiscal chicanery, we'll finally be paying for the effects of the Governator's decision to cut the car tax, and the Republican elimination of the California estate tax.
Other than prisons, the payment for these irresponsible tax cuts is the only area of the budget that has shown real growth in the last decade.
Paying for these tax cuts and the profligate borrowing to support them now costs California over $7,000,000,000 (That's seven billion) a year. Rather than admit mistakes, California's worst governor ever is now preparing to "borrow" 2 billion from local government.
And Republican legislators are still peddling the same stale lies that Arnold sold about billions of savings a year from waste and fraud. They'll find that about the same time OJ finds the real killer.
Below the flip, is the city by city breakdown of the Republican raid on local government. A city will save around a $110,000 a year for each patrol officer they cut. Cities have strict limitations on how they raise and spend funds. They can't pay for law enforcement with higher water rates or building fees, and they have already made deep cuts to everything except public safety.
And as you wait for that emergency response that doesn't come when you call 911, ask yourself why California isn't taxing oil companies the same way Texas and Alaska do, or why we don't have a state estate tax that is fully deductible against Federal estate taxes, like Ohio and New York.
And hey, you've got a little extra time to really celebrate that cut in the car tax that John and Ken demanded.
