LGBT Community Should Be of No Special Concern to Smyrna Police

    LGBT Community Should Be of No Special Concern                                 to Smyrna Police

                         Published in Marietta Daily Journal July 31, 2016

            In the Sunday July 24^th edition, the Marietta Daily Journal reported that the city of Smyrna’s police department was finalizing a list of best practices for interacting with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens.  Last year police Chief David Lee appointed Lt. Tim Sharples as the department’s LGBT liaison.

            According to the MDJ article, Lee and Sharples have no hard numbers on the size of Smyrna’s LGBT population, but in Sharples’ words, “It does seem like we have a growing LGBT community.”

            Teachers of writing and speaking usually tell students to avoid “seems” whenever possible.  Instead, they should gather the facts and present them.  Facts beg for stronger verbs than “seems.” 

             My beef with the good Mayor Bacon and his police department is that, based on Lt. Sharples’ “seeming,” Sharples and Atlanta police officer Eric King, both of whom are gay, are concocting a solution and looking for its problem, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

            The solution is, you guessed it, “diversity training,” that tired old euphemism that boils down to “think as I think” or you’re guilty of a hate crime.  Sharples has not pointed to any attacks on homosexuals or any crimes in Smyrna that have prompted the spending of time and money for diversity “guidelines.”  He has only employed vague language such as “reflecting the community we serve,” “being in touch with the community,” and “having some sort of outreach” to the LGBT community.”

            Outreach.  OK, a good word, but for what, specifically, is the police department reaching out?  Why are homosexual citizens singled out for special attention, protection, or whatever it is the City of Smyrna is after?  Chief Lee has stated that since he has been with the department there have been no issues with the LGBT community.  So why the search for best practices and the plans for “interacting”?

            I guess when bandwagons are clamoring by, it’s hard for some people not to jump on.  If Atlanta is doing it, and Houston and Charlotte …

            I’m not a citizen of Smyrna, so why does Smyrna’s solution looking for a non-problem bother me?  It seems to me … no, I don’t have to seem.  I can count the cars that fill the huge parking lots of conservative churches in Cobb County and across metro Atlanta.  Owners of those cars are not haters, but thousands upon thousands of them hold views on homosexuality that are scorned and dismissed.  They are, we are told, homophobes.

            Perhaps municipalities and counties could designate a liaison to reach out to those thousands in the Christian community to be sure they are heard.  Perhaps the pastors of those conservative churches who preach what Genesis has to say about male and female and what Romans has to say about homosexuality should be granted some “pastor protection.”   

            Since Mayor Bacon’s police department is being pro-active, maybe conservative pastors could be given pro-active advice about how to deal with the IRS.  There’s really no such thing as total freedom of expression for America’s pulpits.  With the mainstreaming of transgenderism and the unbelievable bathroom issue that accompanies it, churches are more than ever under the government’s watchful eye.

            Another reason to question what Smyrna and many other police departments are doing is the effect it has on children and youth.  When words like “bisexual” are tossed around freely and  used in the context of “community,” they become acceptable.  The glib use of sexual expressions that were once unspeakable undermines what conservative parents and churches teach about human sexuality.  Tolerance has become promotion.

            It isn’t just police departments.  The culture at large, particularly Hollywood and the corporate world, is normalizing homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism.  The LGBT lobby has little use for respected psychiatrist Dr. Paul McHugh who put a stop to sex-reassignment surgery at Johns Hopkins University, and who decries all the “misplaced compassion” for the transgendered.  But the corporations are LGBT’s buddies.        

The Obama administration is using the cudgel against North Carolina because its brave governor took a stand for common sense regarding male and female bathrooms.  Jumping on the sensitivity bandwagon with Delta, Home Depot, Target, UPS and practically every other major corporation, the National Basketball Association is moving its 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte.

            On and on it goes.  Fail to think as I think and you will pay for your bigotry.

            The Smyrna police department is dabbling in cultural policing, and the long serving effective Mayor, whom we all know and love, ought to stop it.  Why won’t he and other political leaders stand against the cultural tide and speak up for regular conservative folks instead of bowing to the god of diversity training which is little more than indoctrination?

Roger Hines

July 28, 2016