Providence to host gay criminal justice conference

The Gay Officers Action League of New England (GOAL-NE) will host the 11th annual International Conference of Gay and Lesbian Criminal Justice Professionals from June 12-17. This year's conference will be held in Providence Rhode Island, drawing an expected 150 attendees, and GOAL-NE founding member Sgt. Preston Horton of the MBTA Transit Police, said this year marks the first time New England has hosted the conference.
The conference will feature workshops on a wide range of topics, from promoting LGBT diversity in the criminal justice professions and dealing with heterosexism in the workplace to dealing with same-sex domestic violence and hate crimes as LGBT criminal justice professionals. In addition the conference will feature speeches from Providence Mayor David Cicilline, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, and Democratic activist David Mixner.

"For me [the conference has] allowed me to really build upon training and dealing with the gay and lesbian community as a gay man. It allows me to get perspectives from other regions in the country, to hear from other either straight or gay officers who bring something to the table that I never thought of, and it just makes me a better police officer," said Horton, who has attended about a half-dozen of the previous conferences.One special feature for this year's conference will be the display of three panels from the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. The panels will be on display for both conference attendees and the public June 13 and June 15 at the Providence Biltmore Hotel. One panel will commemorate New York City police officers who have died of AIDS, another will honor San Francisco officer and a third will honor former Boston Police Officer Robert Ian Schlessinger, a former Marine who served as the city's first openly gay liaison to the gay community on the Boston police force. Horton said it was important to honor Schlessinger's work as a trailblazer in law enforcement and to remember the toll the AIDS has taken on the criminal justice community.

"I think a piece of it for me is that AIDS has touched every facet of life, and Bobby was such an important person in the police department in Boston and bridged so many gaps, and to lose him to the virus that causes AIDS was just really devastating," said Horton.

The panels will be on display to the public June 13 from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. and on June 15 from 9 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. For more information on the conference visit www.goalne.org or call 617.376.3612.