User:Snchristensen/Elliott Blackstone

Article Draft
Though Blackstone had proposed the formation of a public relations program for the SFPD, it wasn't until after the "Gayola" scandal - which involved officers soliciting bribes from owners of gay bars in the Tenderloin - that a community relations unit was formed. Blackstone, who had been transferred to the Central City Station housing many of these bars, requested to join the unit after some time.

[moved this sentence and edited:]

Community-relations liaison
In the months following the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, Blackstone participated in efforts by the Tenderloin neighborhood organizing campaign to establish the Central City Anti-Poverty Program, as part of the War on Poverty under President Lyndon B. Johnson. '''The program included an office where Blackstone served as the community-relations liaison to the homophile community.  Blackstone's introduction to advocating for the transgender community occured when Louise Ergestrasse came into his office with a copy of The Transsexual Phenomenon by Harry Benjamin and demanded he do something for "her people." He didn't know a lot about transgender issues, but he was willing to learn and spent the next several years using his role as community liaison to help the transgender community.'''

'''Blackstone played a key role in changing the attitudes and practices of law enforcement. While the California Supreme Court struck down crossdressing laws in 1992, the practice of arresting individuals persisted for several years. Blackstone worked with the police department to dissuade them from arresting transsexual individuals for crossdressing or using the wrong restroom.'''

[Moved this paragraph]

National Transsexual Counseling Unit
In 1968, the National Transsexual Counseling Unit was formed with financial backing from the Erickson Educational Foundation. It was the first peer-run advocacy and counseling group of its kind for transgender individuals. Blackstone managed the office as part of his role as SFPD's liaison. At the NTCU, he helped transgender individuals resolve conflicts with the law, employers, and social service agencies, and he helped social service agencies learn how to respond to transgender needs. While Blackstone received no salary for his managerial role, the EEF did pay for him to attend criminal justice conferences and police professional development meetings throughout the US, where he promoted his unique views on police treatment of transgender people and advocated for reforms.

Blackstone's work with the LGBTQ+ community received pushback from some fellow police officers, including a raid of the NCTU office in 1973. The raid was initiated after a police informant pretended to be romantically interested in one of the peer counselors and coerced her into bringing cocaine for him to work. During this raid, two counselors were arrested on suspicion of narcotics dealing, and an officer planted narcotics in Blackstone's desk in an attempt to frame him as well. Blackstone avoided prosecution but was removed from his role serving the transgender community, and reassigned to a foot patrol in a different district, where he remained until retiring in 1975

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Blackstone worked closely with other local LGBT activist groups such as the Mattachine Society, Daughters of Bilitis, Conversion Our Goal, the Vanguard gay youth group, and the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, as well as the Glide Memorial Church. Blackstone even took up a collection at his church to buy hormones for transgender people, at a time when city-funded health clinics would not provide hormones to them.

Blackstone was also involved in many other church and community activities and taught community policing courses at the College of Marin. He also led sensitivity trainings for the San Fransisco Police Academy on gay and transgender issues, which every graduate had to take. At his retirement dinner in 1975, he was saluted by LGBT community leaders for his advocacy and support. In 2005, an interview with Blackstone was featured in Screaming Queens, a documentary about the 1966 Compton's Cafeteria riot.