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Monday, February 28, 2011

Pleading the 5th

So over this weekend I had the unfortunate responsibility of interacting with some police officers. No worries, Sapphists, I'm not in trouble, nor is anyone I love. However, there were police, in my suite, asking my questions. One of the things they asked was how many people lived in my suite, and where my suitemate was. She was with her girlfriend. I, completely without thinking, told the officer that she was with "her friend."

When I was thinking about this later, I was reminded of an event earlier in the year, at the now-infamous Stiles-Morse screw. While we were waiting to be processed by the officers coming around to check people's IDs, my (female) date and I were holding hands since we were so frightened. However, when the officer got within eyeshot, we both let go of each other without even making eye contact.

I'm out'n'proud with 95% of the people I interact with. Why is it that when around police, I (and I don't think I'm alone in this) tend to hide my sexuality? I've never personally been harassed by police officers for being queer, nor have any of my friends, that I'm aware of, and yet I've come to implicitly distrust them. Have any of y'all been in situations with police, positive or negative, where your sexuality has come into play? Is it unjust of me to mistrust them? Let me know in the comments!

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