The Different Drummer

Pride Under Siege: The LAPD’s Troubled History With the LGBTQ+ Community

With the LGBTQ+ community’s historically strained relationship with the LAPD, can it rely on protection from violence during Pride Month?

“I’ve got nothing against fags; that’s not what this is about.”

– Attributed to LAPD Officer Skip Giuliani

While thought of as a deep blue city, Los Angeles has elements of far-right extremism that betray its liberal electorate. This is especially true within its police force as displayed by its historical treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) spokesperson offered the following apology:

“Sadly, rather than working to protect this community, the LAPD…was not always kind to our gay, lesbian, transgender…our non-conforming Angelenos. I deeply apologize on behalf of the men and women of the LAPD. This mistreatment of our citizens was wrong and should never have happened.”

Members of the department who dared to come out of the closet found the department to be a “hostile, even frightening place.” In 1993, the city settled a…