Join us for two radio programs this month all about LGBT law enforcement personnel and learn about how training for police about the LGBT community is changing for the better.

Outbeat Now! - Sunday, May 23, 2010, 8PM to 9PM PST

Featuring stories about Chief Susan Jones of the Healdsburg Police Department who is retiring after 30 years on the job and about the LAPD's move of their youth program away from the Boy Scouts of America in order to be inclusive of LGBT youth. We will also feature a live interview with cadets from the Napa Police Academy who will talk about their research project on the Transgender Community.

Outbeat Radio Comes Out From Behind The Badge, May 30, 2010 8PM to 9PM PST

This is a special one-hour show all about how LGBT law enforcement officers who are "out" on the job. We will hear from officers of all ages from around the country about their experience on the job. The show will also feature a close look at the homophobia that still exists in law enforcement and how training is changing to prevent it.

Outbeat Radio is a weekly show airing exclusively on KRCB Radio in Santa Rosa, California. Anyone can listen online from anywhere in the world at www.krcb.org. Learn more about these shows at www.comingoutfrombehindthebadge.com and at www.outbeatyouth.com

In the eighth grade, I “came out” as gay when I professed my love for Billy H. in an invitation to be my date to our homecoming dance. My girl friends celebrated their new gay friend, excited by the prospect of adding a fashionista to their clique; despite owning a closet of jeans and ratty t-shirts, being “gay” evidently meant a lot more than kissing boys. In the tenth grade, I discovered (or rather, finally admitted to myself) that I was also into the female form, breasts no longer simply fun pillows at girls’ night sleepovers. I waited until senior year to come out (again), this time as bisexual.

As a wrestler at 6’4’’, 230 pounds, I don’t conform to mainstream conceptions of the gay/queer/non-straight male. Bisexuals are stereotyped as fence-sitters, straddling the divide between queer and straight culture; instead of trying to pass between the two, I too often clash them together (I love blasting Lady Gaga while practicing my shot with a .222 in the Arizona desert). Bisexuality is about contradictions, simultaneously orthodox and heterodox in its practice of sexuality. I, however, find myself bisexual in most every aspect of my identity: a Democrat in the National Rifle Association, a sexually liberal moral traditionalist, a Christian Darwinist, a romantic sybarite caught between intellectualism and frisson’s appeal. For me, bisexuality is about more than a sexual identity – bisexuality is a philosophy, a method of thought that characterizes how I approach the world and the way in which I lead my life.