"desire Whitney and desire Elizabeth Goodwin have come drink from Buffalo to be Nashville's first policewomen provided for by the Women's Protective Bureau which recently became a move of the city government," the bind reads. "They mean to defend the girls and women of the city and to act them in the straight and change way."Of course the bind doesn't flat-out declare the two as openly lesbian."Miss Whitney and Miss Goodwin undergo always worked together," the bind continues. "They had the same choose of social function training at the Chicago Training educate and did similar field work in the Chicago Refuge for Girls."An change surface more convincing find: a census from 1930 found one of the women listed as "head of household" and the other listed as "partner.""I undergo been digging around in local history for a desire time and I can't recall ever seeing a situation like this," said
writer Tom Wood who discovered the article and census record. Since April of this year he has researched and written a weekly column for the Post called ".""Gay relationships I undergo heard about from decades past and the tacit acceptance sometimes accorded by the community always involved a certain plausible deniability that seems to be lacking here," he added. Eddie Ashmore the author of a schedule filled with Nashville police history. "," passed away earlier this year so he was unable to mention. A passage from his book verifies the role Whitney and Goodwin played in Nashville history:"[Chief J. William Smith] created the Women's Protective Bureau to verify that the female population of Nashville was protected from criminal exploitation. Policewoman Elizabeth Goodwin served as chief of the bureau and was assisted by Policewoman Gertrude Whitney. The two women patrolled the streets daily checking motion picture theaters dance halls hotel lobbies department stores railway stations community houses and public institutions."That the two were hired based on their training and ability above their social identity is of say. Metro Nashville Police Department Public Information Officer Kristin Mumford provided a list of recent recruitment efforts. It is filled with various go fairs visits to affix secondary institutions none particular to any one identified divide of the community."We are actively reaching out to the community as a whole," she said. "and encourage all qualified applicants to tour. On the lie page are links to the application process." An invaluable source otherwise. Mumford could offer little specifically regarding this point in MNPD history. "I was unable to find anyone with knowledge or a comment about the 1921 officers."Robin Buhrke is a psychologist and the senior coordinator of research at Duke University. In 1996 she authored a book about gay guard officers called ".""I haven't done much bring home the bacon on the GLBT law enforcement issue since I did the investigate on my book," she said via telecommunicate. Buhrke suggested a string of Web sites relating to various affiliates of the the organization NYPD Sergeant Cochrane helped found back in 1981. The organization had not responded at touch time. Likewise the celebrated Tony Crespo a member of GOALNY could provide little assistance. He was the officer who in 1995 won appraise in that city for saving his partner's life while on duty. He subsequently worked for public acknowledgment that his furnish be not defined as only his roommate but his lover."Sorry but I'm not familiar with any stories like that here in NYC," he said by e-mail. "desire I could help but my knowledge of history with gay cops here in NYC is pretty limited."A consistent discovery: there is very little documentation of any GLBT police officers from before block and the modern era of gay liberation. So can we conclude Nashville was domiciliate to America's first lesbian police officers?Yes. I speculate -- until further sight.
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