What’s Your Story?

We are launching a new part of our website that includes posting short stories and videos submitted by law enforcement, fire service, and EMS professionals from around the country.  We want to hear from police officers, deputies, 9-1-1 dispatchers, correctional officers, fire fighters, paramedics or anyone who is working in a public safety profession and who happens to be gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, or transgender.

Your story doesn’t have to be about how you came out.  In fact, we are looking for your most memorable moments on the job related to being gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transgender.  Maybe it’s the time when you first told your work partner or an awkward or challenging moment during a call in the field.  It could be a story that is funny, happy, sad, or maddening.  The lives of public safety professionals are always unique and fascinating and for those who identify as LGBT, life can be particularly challenging.

We are looking for short stories (2000 words or less).  No story is too short to share, so don’t feel like you need to spend days writing.  Stories that are 300 to 500 words are often the most powerful.  All you have to do is click on the “Submit Your Story” link at the top of this page, fill out the simple form, and then cut and paste your story into the text box provided.

Now if you really want to get creative, we now have the ability to post videos!  You can make a video of your story and upload it to YouTube.  Then, must submit the URL to your upload in the text box as described above.

In all cases, we will publish all stories on this website as soon as they are submitted.  At some point, we may explore assembling these stories into another type of publication or media.  For now, we simply want to get as many stories out there as we can.  Our goal with this project continues to be to inspire other LGBT public safety professionals and to educate our straight colleagues.