| During the past decade there has been increasing gay and lesbian
visibility in urban U.S. police forces. There is a tension between
assimilation and discrimination in the work experiences recounted by
lesbian and gay police officers. This paper includes a brief review of
court cases focusing on discrimination and harassment inside U.S. police
departments, an interdisciplinary literature review, and descriptions of
occupational history interviews with lesbian and gay police officers in
the Midwest. What kinds of legal cases have been brought, particularly
in the Midwest, concerning the rights of gay and lesbian officers? How
do the experiences of lesbian officers differ from those of gay male
officers? What are some coping strategies employed by the gay and
lesbian officers interviewed? To what degree are there promotion or pay
differences between heterosexual and non-heterosexual officers in the
Midwest? What makes some city forces less discriminatory than others as
assessed by gay and lesbian officers? This research examines these
questions to understand some of the professional challenges faced by
these officers in the Midwest.
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Updated 05/20/2006