Article On First International Conference Reprinted Without Permission 
		From New York Newsday  - June 1994
		==================================


GAY COPS PLAN EXHIBIT AT POLICE HQ

By Vivienne Walt
Staff Writer

Twelve years after police officers formed a gay fraternal organization, 
they are opening their first public exhibition in One Police Plaza next 
week and organizers say it steers clear of emphasizing past problems and 
controversies.  "They wanted my assurances that nothing would be in the 
show that would put the Police Department in a negative light," said 
Officer Frances De Benedictis, a board member of Gay Officers Action 
League who organized the exhibit at police headquarters.

The exhibit will shows videotape and photographs tracing the work of 
the gay officers' organization, and the broader experience of homosexuals 
in the United States. The display opens on June 15, and will remain on the 
second-floor public lobby of One Police Plaza for a month. Deputy 
Commissioner for Community Affairs Walter Alicea, whose division is 
co-sponsoring the exhibition, said last week he did not ask gay officers 
to exclude items about police clashes with gays.  He said his only condition 
to GOAL was to keep the display "within the bounds of decency," telling the 
officers they could not hang items like the erotic photographs by Robert 
Mapplethorpe.

"We have a certain interest to make sure that whatever is displayed on our
property is not offensive to people within the department," Alicea said.  But
De Benedictis said that in negotiations with staff in Alicea office, "I 
promised them that anything that went up would be that we were proud to be 
police officers. We are trying to show how wonderful our relationship is with 
the Police Department, in that they allowed this display."  Although 
De Benedictis said the exhibition would include "an article about the 
rebellion" at the Stonewall Bar on Christopher Street in 1969, "our focus 
is not what happened then, but the relationship we now have" with the Police 
Department. The raid on the Stonewall, a predominantly gay bar, sparked 
clashes between officers and gays. Its 25th anniversary is a central theme of 
this month's gay celebrations and a mass march on June 26.

Commissioner William Bratton and Alicea will host a ceremony for gay officers
at police headquarters June 29, 5 days after the Stonewall anniversary.
Despite the tone of harmony, gay activists said last week there were still
tensions between police officers and the gay community. "It's been a dicey
relationship," said Jay Blotcher, media consultant and former spokesman for
ACT UP, an AIDS activist group.

"The position of GOAL is a prickly one. As gays and as cops, their allegiance
is torn. A lot of people in the gay community see them as Uncle Toms."
GOAL's executive director, Colleen Meenan, who left her job five years ago
as a police sergeant to become an attorney, said although department
officials are "very helpful" to the organization, within the ranks of the
force, "there is still extensive homophobia." She said officers complained to
her about jokes by their colleagues made about homosexuality.