A Badge, a Gun, and a New Gender Identity

[Omaha Steve]

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http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/10/10/transgender-law-enforcement

OCT 10, 2015Rebecca McCray is a staff writer covering social justice. A former Fulbright scholar, she is based in New York.

When Julie Marin came out as a transgender woman to her fellow officers in the San Jose Police Department, they suddenly treated her like it was her first day on the job.

One evening in her patrol car, a call came in on her radio from command to respond to a fight. She arrived on the scene and quickly realized it was a sizable fight. Marin called for backup, but no one answered. After absorbing the silence on her radio, she threw herself into the fray and tried to stop the fight herself. Finally, another officer arrived—but instead of helping, he stood and watched as Marin bore the brunt of the chaos, seeing whether she could handle it. As the violence escalated, he ultimately intervened.

“He waited until it got pretty ugly,” Marin told TakePart. “He wanted to see if I still had the courage and physical ability to deal with those kinds of situations. I had to prove myself on the street all over again.”

Nothing had changed about Marin, who had served 20 years before she came out in 2001. Yet most of her colleagues treated her like a rookie and a stranger.

FULL story at link.