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Ft. Worth Police Appoint LGBT Liaison by Scott Stiffler
EDGE ContributorTuesday Oct 27, 2009 The Fort Worth, Texas, police have taken a major step toward repairing its relatioship with the LGBT community after a violent bar raid on June 28, 2009-‚the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The fracas came in for criticism from government officials and eventually police officials themselves.
After intense media scrutiny and protests from the Fort Worth LGBT community in the weeks following the Rainbow Lounge incident, the Fort Worth Police Department began a number of initiatives meant to mend fences with the LGBT community. One such action (in addition to an official apology from the Chief of Police) is the appointment of Sara Straten to the interim position of LGBT liaison.
Straten, who serves as the liaison in addition to her full-time job as a neighborhood police officer in the far north part of town, hopes the position will become an official, full-time one. She’s made it clear that she wants the job.
Rafael McDonnell, strategic communications and program manager for Resource Center Dallas, first met with Straten the evening she was, then again over lunch several weeks later. A native of Fort Worth who still lives there, McDonnell notes Straten has "been physically present at many events and has made herself available to the community. As a result of that, she has gained their trust and support."
Jonathan Nelson, spokesperson for Fairness Fort Worth, serves with Straten on the city’s recently created Diversity Task Force. He has not been involved in or is not privy to any incidents which would shed light on her effectiveness as an LGBT liaison when comes to crime and the community.
Still, Nelson says it’s too early to judge the effectiveness of the position on those matters. "From working with her on the Diversity Task Force dealing with the issue of partner benefits for city employees, including LGBTs, she’s been very vocal and positive and strong about the necessity for partner benefits," he added.
Straten says that when the position becomes an official, full-time one, he hopes the Police Department will create a job description after "discussions with the LGBT community."
McDonnell echoes that concern, noting that while the existence of an LGBT liaison is a positive step, the Police Department at large still "has no diversity or sensitivity training. We’re working with another agency where we likely will be doing that; but I cannot discuss it now."
Straten has heard those concerns, and thinks community input in the creation of a job description is "a great idea. One of the things I am supposed to do is when the community wants something, I’m supposed to bring it to the department."
As for the work she’s done thus far, Straten says she is constantly "educating the dept about things they wanted to know about the community but were afraid to ask, that they would do it in a way that was not ’PC.’" Those concerns include questions about what Stonewall was--a topic Straten herself frankly plead ignorance to before consulting a gay friend who quickly got her up to speed on its history and its implications as they apply to the Rainbow Lounge raid.
Straten also notes that she has been involved in incidents where crime victims have "contacted me, concerned the officers might not be prepared to hear some of the details" in which their sexuality played a role.
One community activist who remains unimpressed with her work so far is Blake Wilkinson, founder of the Dallas-based activist group Queer LiberAction (which now has a Fort Worth branch). In a recent EDGE article, Wilkinson took Straten to task for being evasive when asked for specific commitments from the Police Department in matters of security surrounding their Kiss-in event at the Stockyards. Straten confirms Blake’s account of her hanging up on him "after I spent 15 or 20 minutes on the phone with Blake, assuring him."
She ended the conversation by hanging up, but notes only after "It got to the point where it was adversarial and I wasn’t able to give Blake the answers he wanted." On the matter of the Kiss-in event, she says "I ended up dealing with the Fort Worth representative for Queer Liberaction. He and I plan to meet for lunch. I’ve expressed to him that my desire to have a good working relationship with him, he’s very open to that."
If you have a question for Straten, she says "I want to stress I am here for the community." To that end, she encourages communication via her email (Sara.straten@fortworthgov.org) or cell phone (817-475-3630). Consider that an open invitation to approach her. "If the community can’t get hold of me," she reasons, "what good am I?"
Scott Stiffler is a New York City based writer and comedian who has performed stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy. His show, "Sammy’s at The Palace. . .at Don’t Tell Mama"---a spoof of Liza Minnelli’s 2008 NYC performance at The Palace Theatre, recently had a NYC run. He must eat twice his weight in fish every day, or he becomes radioactive.
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