Trans, Gay Sf Cops Make Moves

As they make transitions, two out policemen are in different stages of their careers with the San Francisco Police Department, but they share a desire to see people reach out more to the agency.

Out transgender Officer Broderick Elton, 35, is taking on a new role in the department, and out gay Lieutenant Pete Thoshinsky, 54, has retired from the force.

In another transition at the SFPD, out gay Sergeant Chuck Limbert was promoted to lieutenant in June, as the Bay Area Reporter noted in a blog post. Reached by phone recently, Limbert said, "I love my new job," but he hasn't been available to comment further.

Limbert has left Mission Station, where he was the longtime LGBT liaison, and now works at Southern Station.

Elton, who has patrolled San Francisco's streets since 2007, has served as the transgender liaison for about a year. As of June 10, he is also assisting out gay police Sergeant Peter Shields in the special investigations division, with a focus on hate crimes against LGBTs and other communities.

As with most other incidents, anti-LGBT crime numbers are underreported, Elton said.

"One of the goals is to reach out to the community to encourage reporting of crimes so we can address them and also try to track any patterns and do our part," he said.

Elton will continue his liaison role, in which he was preceded by out transgender Lieutenant Stephan Thorne, who Elton said is retiring soon. Thorne didn't respond to an emailed request for comment.

Part of what Elton and others are doing is reaching out to communities including LGBTs. Trans: Thrive, a transgender community drop-in center, is one of the groups Elton has contacted.

"Officer Elton represents the SFPD, but he also represents his transgender sisters and brothers," Nikki Calma, who's also known as Tita Aida and is a program supervisor at Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center, which oversees Trans: Thrive, said in a statement. "We hope a true partnership between the police department and the community will not only make us safer, but also serve as a model of healthy community relations for the rest of the nation."

There's been increased attention around violence against transgender women, especially in the Mission neighborhood, in recent months, but some say women are reluctant to report incidents because they've had bad experiences with the police and don't trust them.

Elton hopes to change that perception.

"I don't want to discredit anyone's experiences," he said, but he noted that sometimes people who've had trouble with cops are referring to situations from several years ago, and there can also be misunderstandings around interactions with police.

Elton, who lives in San Francisco and has a salary of around $85,000, indicated he would like to see more people attend the SFPD's LGBT Community Advisory Forum monthly meetings. People can contact Elton at [email protected] or (415) 553-1532.

After more than 30 years with the SFPD, out gay Lieutenant Pete Thoshinsky has retired, as of midnight June 28. Thoshinsky is known as the first out gay man to reach the rank of lieutenant in the department, but he noted that Thorne was promoted to the rank before him.

In Thoshinsky's last post, he supervised the night watch at SFPD's Northern Station, which includes the Fillmore, Lower Haight, Hayes Valley, and Pacific Heights areas.

Reflecting on how the department's changed over the years, Thoshinsky said, "This is not your grandfather's SFPD. This is not the SFPD that walked into the Elephant Walk."

In 1979 police ransacked the Castro neighborhood bar, which is now known as Harvey's, and attacked patrons.

It appears many people don't realize attitudes in the department have changed.

"When crime occurs in the city we get so little help from people," Thoshinsky said. "It's almost like people arrive in San Francisco expecting to dislike the police, and come hell or high water, they're going to dislike the police."

He added, "If you're LGBT, there's no reason you should not report crimes to the SFPD." He said given the level of diversity, with officers from the LGBT and other communities, "It's nothing like it was, just nothing like what it was."

Lieutenant Una Bailey, president of the San Francisco Police Officer's Pride Alliance, indicated Thoshinsky, who came out in 2008, had a role in changes at the department.

"He is the only person I know who stood before his officers in a line up and announced his coming out as a gay officer," Bailey said in an email. "Pete was one of a kind in many ways. He was a mentor to many and led by example."

She noted Thoshinsky published a book of photography, Blue in Black and White. The book, published in 2005, depicts San Francisco police and some of the various situations and people they encounter.

Thoshinsky, who's recently taken photos for the Bay Area Reporter, has started working as a photojournalist. He said being a San Francisco cop has been "thrilling," but "I want to do other things now." His salary in his last position with the SFPD was around $148,000.

Thoshinsky plans to work on social documentary stories in the Bay Area, "focusing on LGBT issues and criminal justice issues."

There are plenty of areas to tackle. Thoshinsky pointed to the city's myriad problems, including a lack of jobs, homelessness, and people eating out of trashcans, as well as a lack of resources.

"There are just only so many tools in the toolbox, and the toolbox is empty now," he said.

Some of Thoshinsky's work can be seen at http://www.tmaxphoto.com. He lives in Walnut Creek with his husband, Mark Hanreich, 54.