S.F. Officers Reach Out to Gay Youth to Combat Suicide
The San Francisco Police Department has become the nation's first law enforcement agency to assure lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual young people that yes, it does get better.
More than a dozen LGBT officers and dispatchers appeared in the 8 1/2-minute video released Friday on YouTube and the department's website. It's part of a nationwide effort by the nonprofit Trevor Project to deal with the rising number of teen suicides in the gay community.
The uniformed officers spoke directly to the camera, talking about their younger years, the problem they had living lives in the closet, and the complete relief it was to come out and be honest with their parents and the people around them.
"I was a police officer for four years and believed I was the only gay male police officer in the world," one officer said.
Others talked about how their lives changed when they came out to others.
"I think it was harder for me to tell my mom than it was for my mom to hear what I had to say," a female officer said.
The video, which took about five months to produce, was done for free by San Francisco filmmaker Shawn Northcutt and local musician Lynden Bair, said Cmdr. Lea Militello, who helped put together the project.
It wasn't hard getting the cooperation of the department and its 200 openly LGBT officers.
"We put out the word and had plenty of volunteers," Militello said. "We wanted to show all ages, all ranks, all genders, all ethnicities, all assignments."
Police Chief Greg Suhr said it was "a no-brainer" to have the department participate in the same "It Gets Better" message of hope that the San Francisco Giants already have.
In the video, Suhr talks about getting bullied as a young kid.
"I can't even imagine what it's like to grow up as an LGBT youth today, and no one deserves to get taunted or bullied," he said. "It does get better, and until it does, we here in the San Francisco Police Department are going to stick up for you."
Besides being available online, the video will be distributed to the San Francisco Unified School District and other interested groups. Militello also expects to hear from other law enforcement groups interested in similar projects.
"We wanted to keep this under wraps while it was being prepared, but now it's out there and we hope everyone sees it," she said.
See the video The department's "It Gets Better" video is available on YouTube links.sfgate.com/ZLHH and the department's website links.sfgate.com/ZLHG. Copyright 2012 San Francisco ChronicleAll Rights Reserved
