New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Office Angela C. Vance Chief of Police IN THIS LGBTQ Liaison Officer EDITION:

Inspirational thought….. pg. 1 IN MEMORY OF LEELAH……… LGBT Liaison Officer’s Activities…pg. 2

Mission & Core Values...pg. 3

Did You Know?...pgs. 4 - 7

Ally… pg. 7

A Heartfelt message from your LGBT Liaison….pg. 8

Upcoming Events/Advocacy Contact Info…..pg. 9

Supportive Places of Worship & Passing Thought….pg. 10

"The only way I will rest in peace is if one day people aren't treated the way I was," reads the post. "They're treated like humans, with valid New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015 feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something."

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

LGBT LIAISON OFFICER’S ACTIVITIES

Officer Vance continues to be busy representing the Police Department at many venues. She has worked with numerous organizations on a plan called “Hamilton County Safe & Supported Community Plan to Prevent Homelessness for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning Youth,” for more than a year and the plan was finally submitted to the Federal Government for approval. and only one other city were chosen to create a plan to prevent LGBTQ Youth Homelessness by the year 2020. The other city is Houston, Texas.

Officer Vance has also been recently involved in working diligently with many agencies on a plan surrounding the opioid epidemic, “Reversing the Tide: Hamilton County’s Response to the Opioid Epidemic.” She will continue to train officers on the administration of Narcan. Officer Vance has also been asked to be a speaker at the Interact for Health Summit and the Police Department’s role in the administration of Narcan in our city.

The HRC (Human Rights Campaign) has asked that Officer Vance be on this year’s HRC Greater Cincinnati Gala Committee. She has been involved in the process to have this year’s Gala one to remember! The HRC Gala is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 28, 2015.

Officer Vance continues to work with the Lighthouse Sheakley Center for Youth, along with Officer Lisa Johnson, on many projects surrounding youth homelessness and doing outreach with their teams. The Police Department and the Lighthouse are teaming up with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office to begin work surrounding the exploitation of boys. Officer Vance has been asked to speak at the “Two Days in May” Ohio Attorney General’s Conference this year.

In February, Officer Vance will be attending the HRC’s 2nd Annual “Time to THRIVE” Conference in Portland, Oregon, where Michael Sam along with George Taki will be receiving “Upstander Awards”. New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

CINCINNATI POLICE DEPARTMENT MISSION

The Cincinnati Police Department will develop personnel and manage resources to promote effective partnerships with the community to improve the quality of life through the delivery of fair and impartial police services while maintaining an atmosphere of respect for human dignity.

CORE VALUES

*INTEGRITY Our actions and relationships with the community are guided by an internal sense of honesty and morality; *PROFESSIONALISM Our conduct and demeanor display the highest standard of personal and organizational excellence; *DIVERSITY Our members recognize differences as strength in our organization and community; *ACCOUNTABILITY Our duty is to promote public trust by upholding our obligations to the department and community; *VIGILANCE Our responsibility is to be alert to issues and activities impacting our community.

LGBT LIAISON MISSION

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Liaison Officer is a link between the Cincinnati Police Department and the LGBT Community. The mission of the LGBT Liaison Officer is to build communication between the LGBT Community and the Cincinnati Police Department through trust and understanding. The New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

LGBT Liaison Officer will also educate and promote programs and engage the LGBT Community in public safety awareness campaigns. The LGBT Liaison Officer will work in partnership with allies, community leaders, business owners and residents to develop strategies to improve trust, enhance police legitimacy, and to eliminate stereotypical communication gaps between the LGBT Community and the Cincinnati Police Department.

Cincinnati Police Department is committed to maintaining an LGBTQ-affirming environment. We assure this by:

Challenging bias/hateful statements consistently.

Using affirming gender language or gender-neutral language. This includes calling a youth by their chosen name and using their preferred pronouns.

Understanding that sexual identity and gender expression are fluid by doing our best to respect each young person’s self-identity as it changes.

Not making assumptions. This includes not assuming someone’s orientation, label or gender ID based on appearance or behavior.

Valuing everyone. We treat everyone with unconditional professional regard.

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

DID YOU KNOW??? ???

Transgender teen struck and killed on Ohio interstate in apparent suicide

Monday, December 29, 2014 New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

Leelah Alcorn

UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A 17-year-old transgender teen was struck and killed by a passing semi trailer on an Ohio interstate on Sunday, and a previously written suicide note later appeared on the teen’s blog. Police said Leelah Alcorn was in the roadway when she was struck, and is believed to have walked 3-4 miles from her parents house in nearby Kings Mill, Ohio. She died at 2:20 a.m. Sunday. The incident is being investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, but local media have reported the incident as the death of a teen “boy,” using Leelah’s (male) birth name, and have made no mention that she was transgender. Following the incident, this entry appeared on Leelah’s blog describing the pain of being “a girl trapped in a boy’s body” and her Christian parents’ refusal to allow her to transition.

SUICIDE NOTE: If you are reading this, it means that I have committed suicide and obviously failed to delete this post from my queue.

Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in… because I’m transgender. I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I feel like a girl trapped in a boy’s body, and I’ve felt that way ever since I was 4. I never knew there was a word for that feeling, nor was it possible for a boy to become a girl, so I never told anyone and I just continued to do traditionally “boyish” Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

things to try to fit in.

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don’t tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don’t ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won’t do anything but make them hate them self. That’s exactly what it did to me.

My mom started taking me to a therapist, but would only take me to christian therapists, (who were all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I needed to cure me of my depression. I only got more christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.

When I was 16 I realized that my parents would never come around, and that I would have to wait until I was 18 to start any sort of transitioning treatment, which absolutely broke my heart. The longer you wait, the harder it is to transition. I felt hopeless, that I was just going to look like a man in drag for the rest of my life. On my 16th birthday, when I didn’t receive consent from my parents to start transitioning, I cried myself to sleep.

I formed a sort of a “fuck you” attitude towards my parents and came out as gay at school, thinking that maybe if I eased into as trans it would be less of a shock. Although the reaction from my friends was positive, my parents were pissed. They felt like I was attacking their image, and that I was an embarrassment to them. They wanted me to be their perfect little straight christian boy, and that’s obviously not what I wanted.

So they took me out of public school, took away my laptop and phone, and forbid me of getting on any sort of , completely isolating me from my friends. This was probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed, and I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. I was completely alone for 5 months. No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness. At the end of the school year, my parents finally came around and gave me my phone and let me back on social media. I was excited, I finally had my friends back. They were extremely excited to see me and talk to me, but only at first. Eventually they realized they didn’t actually give a shit about me, and I felt even lonelier than I did before. The only friends I thought I had only liked me because they saw me five times a week. New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

After a summer of having almost no friends plus the weight of having to think about college, save money for moving out, keep my grades up, go to church each week and feel like shit because everyone there is against everything I live for, I have decided I’ve had enough. I’m never going to transition successfully, even when I move out. I’m never going to be happy with the way I look or sound. I’m never going to have enough friends to satisfy me. I’m never going to have enough love to satisfy me. I’m never going to find a man who loves me. I’m never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way out. I’m sad enough already, I don’t need my life to get any worse. People say “it gets better” but that isn’t true in my case. It gets worse. Each day I get worse.

That’s the gist of it, that’s why I feel like killing myself. Sorry if that’s not a good enough reason for you, it’s good enough for me. As for my will, I want 100% of the things that I legally own to be sold and the money (plus my money in the bank) to be given to trans civil rights movements and support groups, I don’t give a shit which one. The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please. Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

Goodbye, (Leelah) Josh Alcorn

In a second post, Leelah expressed apologies to her sisters and brother.

Editor’s Note: If you or a young person you know is LGBT and thinking about suicide, please call The Trevor Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386, or the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. For adults over 24, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Share this article with your friends and followers:

DID YOU KNOW Continued…

Homes that deny transgender identities result in a suicide-attempt rate that's 14 times higher than in homes where such identities are accepted. If you belong to a religion that denies transgender identities and put money in the collection plate or pay your 10-percent tithe, you are bankrolling the slaughter of innocents. You can claim you New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015 love LGBT people all day, but as long as you're footing the bill for propaganda that's literally killing children, you are an accessory. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brynn-tannehill/not-one-more_b_6400854.html)

57% of attempted suicide within the last year

Facts About Suicide:

• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24. [1] • LGB youth are 4 times more likely, and questioning youth are 3 times more likely, to attempt suicide as their straight peers. [2] • Suicide attempts by LGB youth and questioning youth are 4 to 6 times more likely to result in injury, poisoning, or overdose that requires treatment from a doctor or nurse, compared to their straight peers. [3] • Nearly half of young transgender people have seriously thought about taking their lives, and one quarter report having made a suicide attempt. [4] • LGB youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times as likely to have attempted suicide as LGB peers who reported no or low levels of family rejection. [5] • 1 out of 6 students nationwide (grades 9-12) seriously considered suicide in the past year. [6] • Suicide attempts are nearly two times higher among Black and Hispanic youth than White youth. [7] • Each episode of LGBT victimization, such as physical or verbal or abuse, increases the likelihood of self-harming behavior by 2.5 times on average. [8]

SOURCES: [1] CDC, NCIPC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS) [online]. (2010) {2013 Aug. 1}. Available from:www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars.

[2] CDC. (2011). Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Risk Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[3] CDC. (2011). Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Risk Behaviors Among Students in Grades 9-12: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[4] Grossman, A.H. & D'Augelli, A.R. (2007). Transgender Youth and Life-Threatening Behaviors. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behaviors.37(5), 527-37.

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

[5] Family Acceptance Project™. (2009). Family rejection as a predictor of negative health outcomes in white and Latino lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults. Pediatrics. 123(1), 346-52.

[6] CDC. (2011). Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2011. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[7] CDC. (2011). Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2011. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

[8] IMPACT. (2010). Mental health disorders, psychological distress, and suicidality in a diverse sample of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths. American Journal of Public Health. 100(12), 2426-32. New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

A person who doesn’t identify as LGBTQ, but on who supports the LGBTQ community and stands up against & HARASSMENT!!!!

Someone who confronts heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, , heterosexual and gender straight privilege in themselves and others; a concern for the well-being of LGBTQ people; and a belief that heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia are social justice issues

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBTQ Liaison Officer

A HEARTFELT MESSAGE FROM THE LGBT LIAISON: New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

I have been contacted by people from all over this country surrounding my LGBTQ Liaison Officer position and have also been asked to speak about my position. Police Departments all over the country are extremely impressed with our department. I as well am very proud of the work our men and women do. However, There have been occasions where I have had to squash complaints regarding some of our officers and their improper use of language surrounding the LGBTQ Community. As professional as our department portrays itself, I would hope that we all can step back for a brief time and reflect on our own lives and think about your family members and the people closest to you. How would it feel to be called something that is inappropriate, or how would you feel if one of those family members came to you in tears due to an encounter with someone who used a discriminatory remark towards them? As I make this newsletter in memory of a young Transgender Youth and her suicide, it breaks my heart to think what she went through and what many of our LGBTQ Community members go through just to live a happy life!!! I ask that we all think about the interaction we have every day with someone who is different than us, think about how it would feel not to be accepted for whatever reason. Think about the struggles that we as law enforcement officers go through on a daily basis and that we ourselves being cops are misunderstood. Again I am very humbled by the opportunity to be the LGBTQ Liaison Officer and ask that we all remember where we have come from and remember our own life experiences. ---Angie

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Office Angela C. Vance New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

Chief of Police LGBT Liaison Officer

Advocacy contacts:

Human Rights Campaign Scott Knox Lighthouse Sheakley Center (Homeless Youth) 250 E. 5th Street Attorney At Law 2522 Highland Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 13 E. Court St. Suite 300 Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 (513)762-7667 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513)767-6345 (513)241-3800 Joseph House (Homeless Veterans) Off the Streets (Prostitution) 1526 Republic Street Carol Thornton Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 300 Lytle Street (513)241-2965 Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 (513)378-2534

Greater Cincinnati Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) P.O. Box 19364 Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 Cincinnati PFLAG HOTLINE: Call 211 BRAVO (Buckeye Region Anti-Violence Organization) (513)721-7900 P.O. Box 82068

Columbus, Ohio 43202 TRUE COLORS FUND (614)294-7867 / (866)86 BRAVO http://truecolorsfund.org www.BRAVO-OHIO.ORG The True Colors Fund was co-founded by Cyndi Lauper to raise awareness about and bring an end to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth homelessness, and to inspire everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of equality for all.

Ten Tips for Parents of a GLBT Child GLSEN Cincinnati Heartland Trans*Wellness Group http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/parents/173 www.glsen.org/chapters/cincinnati www.transwellness.org/programs/ www.facebook.com/ggcyg Email: [email protected] Phone: 513-549-4447

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Country Line Dancing PFLAG OF GREATER CINCINNATI Shooters Bar www.flagcinci.org /2nd Tuesdays 927 Race Street 211 or (513)721-7900 / 7:00-9:00 p.m. Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 8:30 P.M. – 12:00 A.M. Saturday Nights

Rosie’s Tavern HRC Greater Cincinnati Annual Gala Happy Hour 3:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. Daily Saturday February 28, 2015 643 Blackwell Street Horseshoe Casino Covington, Kentucky

Cincinnati PRIDE Parade June 27, 2015 / 1200 p.m. New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015

Jeffrey Blackwell Police Officer Angela C. Vance Chief of Police LGBT Liaison Officer

SUPPORTIVE PLACE OF WORSHIP IN GREATER CINCINNATI Calvary Episcopal Church Church of Our Savior (Episcopal) Clifton United Methodist Church 3766 Clifton Ave. 65 E. Hollister 3416 Clifton Ave. Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 Contact: Jason Leo Contact: Paula Jackson 513-961-2998 513-861-4437 513-241-1870

Community Friends Meeting (Quaker) Congregation Beth Adam First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati 3690 Winding Way 10001 Loveland-Maderia Road 526 Linton St. Cincinnati, Ohio 45229 Loveland, Ohio 45140 Cincinnati, Ohio 45219 513-861-4353 Contact: Robert Barr Contact: Shannon Dittmar 513-985-0400 513-281-1564

Grace Episcopal Church / 5501 Hamilton Ave. / 513-541-2415

LGBT LIAISON CONTACT INFORMATION: (ANY QUESTIONS????) Police Officer Angela C. Vance Community Liaison Unit / LGBT Liaison 310 Ezzard Charles Drive Cincinnati, Ohio 45214 Direct Line: (513)352-2989 Work Mobile: (513)389-8467 Email: [email protected]

Passing Thoughts…. New Year Edition ON THE BEAT IN THE LGBT COMMUNITY 1st Edition 2015