Gay Cops Have an Agenda, and a GOAL

It was a Fall evening in 1981, when a retired NYPD detective and an NYPD sergeant got together for dinner. The detective, Sam Ciccone, presented sergeant Charles Cochrane with the idea for creating a gay fraternal organization within the NYPD. The name of the organization would be Gay Officers Action League, and would represent gay and lesbian members of police service and would receive the same recognition, rights, benefits and privileges accorded to the more traditional fraternal groups. These groups had for many years influenced and dominated criminal justice agencies across the country. Lesbians and gays in the department had no such advocates.

A month later on November 21, 1981, Sergeant Cochrane, a 14 year veteran of the NYPD, created shock waves by testifying before a City Council hearing in favor of a gay rights bill. Following on the testimony of a Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Vice President who denounced the bill and declared he didn’t know of any homosexual police officers, Cochrane stunned those present by announcing, “I am very proud of being a New York City Police Officer, and I am equally proud of being gay.” There was no turning back.

On April 19, 1982 Cochrane and Ciccone proudly signed their names to the legal and public documents that incorporated GOAL. By this action the Gay Officers Action League, Inc. became the first official police fraternal society in the world to represent lesbian and gay people within the criminal justice system.

It was not an easy start, and through the 1980s and into the 90s, GOAL continued to push for recognition and support of LGBT officers, sometimes having to bring lawsuits against the the PBA and city. Their efforts paid off, and GOAL attained full recognition as a true fraternal NYPD organization.

Since then, GOAL chapters have been created in every section of the United States. For more information on GOAL NYPD, Click Here. For a list of Gay/Lesbian Criminal Justice organizations, including GOAL chapters, Click Here.

(As much of this text is derived from NYPD GAOL's website, it remains Copyrighted 2006 - Gay Officers Action League)

A Cop and His Horse

There's an organization in New York City that plans and organizes special events and outings that gay guys can get out and have fun with other gay guys. Although I am not a member, my friend Jeff is, and using his membership, invited us to a private cocktail mixer at some chic bistro in the East Village being organized by this group. Planning to meet Jeff at the event, my partner and I took the subway to a stop I was unfamiliar with, and although we had directions, found ourselves rather lost (a rare event for me) upon exiting the subway. It was night, so I couldn't even use the sun to judge East to West. However, one of the first things I spotted when we came up from the subway was a cop on a horse. You know, uniform, boots up to the knees, large nightstick, and to top things off, the guy was a hottie (no, it wasn't JUST the uniform!), the epitome of majestic masculinity.

So, I walked up to him and asked if he can direct us to the street we know this place is located, but instead of answering by pointing and giving me directions, he asked exactly what we were looking for, which I thought somewhat odd. So, I tell him the name of the bistro, and then the cop says, "Oh, you guys are going to the cocktail mixer! I was supposed to go, too, but as you can see, I had to work tonight." Apparently, we were dealing with family. Needless to say, we received perfect directions to get there.

That's why this is My Small Gay World, yours too, of course. You see, although six degrees of separation exists in the larger context of life, for us and our tight-knit community, it's more like three degrees of separation.

Photo courtesy of Towleroad (Nisos, by the way, is a popular gay hangout in Chelsea)