LGBT panel discusses need for improved safety

The Salt Lake Tribune

Law enforcement is there to help, but members of Utah’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community also need to work together to improve safety for one another.

That was the theme of a LGBT panel discussion Tuesday night hosted by the Utah Pride Center and other community groups at the Salt Lake City Main Library.

“I can’t help you, if you don’t call me,” said speaker Sgt. Julie Jorgensen, a member of the West Valley City Police Department and the inter-agency LGBT Public Safety Liaison Committee. “Some people are reluctant to call the police because they’re afraid … [but] officers are required to be objective in their investigations.”

Jorgensen encouraged people who do feel they were treated poorly by a police officer to lodge a complaint with the agency.

Panelists also included Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder, Salt Lake City Chief Prosecutor Sim Gill and Paul Parker, chief criminal deputy in the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office.

A recent survey conducted by the Pride Center and the Liaison Committee, which offers LGBT sensitivity training to law enforcement agencies along the Wasatch Front, found many people who are LGBT often don’t feel safe being themselves in public.

“As a gay man, I feel safer in some areas of [Salt Lake] County than others,” said actor Charles Lynn Frost, an attendee.

Only one-third of the survey’s respondents said they thought they would be protected from discrimination if they called police to report an incident of domestic violence.

Jorgensen assured attendees that officers have a responsibility to treat gay and lesbian couples the same as straight ones. Her committee includes representatives from Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, West Valley City, Weber County, South Salt Lake, Draper, Bountiful, West Bountiful and Cottonwood Heights.

But one attendee questioned whether the panelists’ commitment to safety for the LGBT community was being backed up by the actions of law enforcement.

“What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say,” said Dominique Storni, a transgender woman who lives in South Salt Lake. Storni said she called police when she was a victim of a hate crime several years ago and was “basically ignored.”

She also complained about the handling of two recent assault cases against gay men in South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City.

“Whatever training is going on, it’s not sticking,” she said. Still, she thanked the speakers for participating in the discussion.

“Hear my anger, but also hear that I’m really glad you’re here,” Storni told them.

Eric Ethington, a member of the panel who represented the LGBT community, said it’s important for people to look out for their friends when they go out and also not to engage in a fight if someone tries to pick one.

It’s become more common, he noted, for LGBT people to go out to mainstream bars and restaurants — not just LGBT-specific ones.

“Especially at bars and clubs where liquor is involved,” Ethington said, “if you hear someone shouting hate speech … the worst possible thing [you] can do is walk up to them and start shouting.”

Instead, he advised, notify the bar tender, bouncer or restaurant manager.

The Utah Pride Center plans to reach out to bars and restaurants around Utah to provide training on how to make LGBT patrons safer. Businesses that complete the training would be certified as LGBT-friendly.

“These owners are starting to recognize we are there,” Ethington said. “They love us — or more specifically, our money. They do not want to lose us as patrons.”

Attendees also were encouraged to participate in a neighborhood watch program and to lobby their city or county law enforcement agencies to join the LGBT Public Safety Liaison Committee if not members already.