A Minneapolis police sergeant who told the city’s largest newspaper that she was a lesbian in 1993 may become the first openly gay U.S Marshal, according the Associated Press.
During Sharon Lubinski’s interview with the Star Tribune she said she feared she was putting herself in danger and, at the time, officers in the department who were suspected of being gay were taunted. “Hopefully my coming out will dispel any myths that you can’t be gay and in uniform,” Lubinski said.
Her interview gave other gay officers the courage to come out as well.
“Frankly, I would not have been comfortable being the first to come out, but I think she made it far easier for the rest of us because everyone said, ‘Oh, she’s a good cop,” said Minneapolis Deputy Chief Robert Allen, who came out to fellow officers a few weeks later.
Now, more than a decade after Lubinski made headlines, President Barack Obama nominated her to one of the “country’s top law enforcement jobs.”
There is some speculation that the nomination is Obama showing a “symbolic gesture” because of his lagging progress on key gay issues; others feel that it is a “step in the right direction toward ending a culture of discrimination.”
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-Katelynd Jarvis
