Badpuppy Gay Today

Tuesday, 20 May 1997

Relationships between gay men and law enforcement officers have improved over the last decade, especially in metropolitan areas where police no longer allow themselves to discriminate against job applicants on the basis of their sexual orientations. The current hunt for alleged killer-gigolo Andrew Cunanan, believed to have murdered several males in recent weeks, has provided the opportunity for a new nationwide look at developing relationships between gay men and lesbians and their local police.

In rural locales, especially in the south, gay males remain--as they did in the 1950's and 1960's-- highly skeptical of any police actions. During county elections, it is still commonplace for a sheriff to send entrapment officers into little-known places where gays have been known to gather, initiating flirtatious conversations that end in unfair arrests.

It was at a Greenwich Village bar protesting 1969 police harassment that gay men, lesbians and drag queens rose up in defiance, thereby creating the legendary Stonewall rebellion, a milestone event in gay history.

Nearly three decades later, a similar harassment police policy is now in vogue in the Los Angeles area where, for the past several months gay bars have been inspected with zealous legalistic gusto. Reports from L.A. residents also indicate that bar patrons--males and females- have been targeted for tickets and arrests once they leave their favorite watering holes.

In the department's Northeast and North Hollywood division boundaries gay bars account for only 8% of the establishments yet were subjected to 20.4% and 14.5% of inspections respectively. Police behaviors of this sort keep gay male fears of police misconduct banked and burning.

In the wake of murders believed to have been committed by Andrew Cunanan, police from San Diego to New York are requesting gay male help in finding the suspect. Some, like those in Minneapolis, are enjoying a successful alliance, though Constance Potter, anti-violence program coordinator for the Minneapolis Gay and Lesbian Community Action Council, says "the perception still persists that law enforcement officers are not our allies."

Minneapolis has been rife with rumors about the Cunanan-related murders since April 27 and yet such concerns must stand on the shoulders of recent studies showing that three-fourths of Minneapolis gay men and lesbians who reported violence or threats of violence to the city's gay anti-violence program, were reluctant to call police for help. Even so, say police, the city's gay community has been responsive and helpful in the current search for the suspected murderer.

San Diego's Gay and Lesbian Times social columnist, Nicole Ramirez Murray, writes that some gay males have refused to help police. Many have left town and others, mostly closeted business men, are hiding from investigators.

New York City police have turned over to gay activists the task of warning Big Apple denizens about the threat posed by Cunanan.

In Chicago, according to gay store owners on the North Halsted Street corridor in the Lake View neighborhood, police sensitivity collapses the farther one travels from specifically gay areas.

"We're not saying the Chicago Police Department has arrived in terms of dealing with all its homophobia and power issues," said Toni Carrigan, director of Chicago's (Horizons) anti-violence project.

Constance Potter says she does not believe Cunanan's whereabouts will remain a mystery for long. "The high visibility on this case has led to an incredible amount of pressure on the community to find this person," she said, "Any information finding this man is going to come from the gay community."