Sgt. Jane ‘JB’ Wallace was named the D.C. Fire & EMS Department’s first LGBT Liaison Officer. (Blade photo by Henry Linser)
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LOU CHIBBARO JR
Friday, July 13, 2007
The D.C. Fire & Emergency Medical Services Department is committed to treating gay and transgender citizens with respect and inclusiveness, the department’s new gay liaison officer said this week.
Sgt. Jane “JB” Wallace, who was appointed June 14 as the department’s first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Liaison Officer, said incidents in the past, where firefighters and paramedics made disparaging remarks about gay and transgender persons and refused to administer medical treatment to them, will no longer be tolerated.
“Under our new chief, it is clearly understood that this department will not tolerate any mistreatment of any group whatsoever,” Wallace said. “If you can’t put your own feelings aside and treat people with the respect that they deserve, then you don’t belong in this department.”
Wallace and the department’s director of public affairs, Tony Dorsey, said Fire Chief Dennis Rubin, whom Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed in March, has a record of strong support for diversity training on gay- and transgender-related issues within the department for all employees.
Wallace and Dorsey said Rubin has disclosed to his top officials in the department that his longstanding personal commitment to equal treatment for gays and transgender persons is buttressed by the fact that one of Rubin’s two daughters is a lesbian.
One of Ruben’s first official actions after City Council confirmed his appointment on May 1 was to create the LGBT liaison position and to appoint Wallace, 56, an open lesbian and a 19-year Fire & EMS Department veteran, to the new post.
“This is a new day for this department,” Dorsey said. “One of the great things about this new chief is his decision to make this a high priority —diversity, transparency and inclusiveness,” he said.
“And having JD be our LGBT liaison officer is fantastic because it speaks to that,” Dorsey said. “It’s not all talk.”
Wallace said she joined the department as an EMS technician in 1988 and has been out “since the day I walked in the door.”
Prior to joining the department, she received a bachelor’s of science degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Maryland. In 1991, she graduated from the department’s paramedic program, receiving honors for academic achievement. Wallace has also served as an instructor at the department’s training academy, where she has taught some of the diversity courses that include information about gays and transgender persons.
According to Wallace, as of this year, “every single employee,” from assistant fire chief to firefighter and EMS technician, has received the gay- and transgender-inclusive diversity training. She
and Dorsey said that beginning in September or October, the department will begin offering a “refresher course” on diversity, which all personnel will eventually take.
In describing her new job duties, Wallace said she intends to serve as a bridge between the department and the gay and transgender communities.
“Because I’ve been with the fire department for so long, I understand the fire department’s culture,” she said. “And because I’ve been a member of the gay community for so long, I understand the LGBT community’s culture.”
In addition, Wallace said she plans to set up a support group for LGBT employees at the department as well as help the department take steps to encourage gays and trans people to consider applying for jobs as firefighters or EMS workers.
Wallace said she is aware of longstanding concerns that some firefighters and EMS workers have given less-than-adequate treatment of gays and trans residents over the past decade. She said she would meet with representatives of the gay and transgender communities over the next several months to listen to their concerns and inform them of what she calls the “important changes” that have occurred within the department.
“It was once said that the past is prologue,” she said. “But what I’m going to say is the past is past. We’re concerned about the present and the future.”
But members of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance and local transgender activist Ruby Corado said they aren’t ready to forget about past problems.
History of problems
During the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club’s regular meeting Monday night, where Wallace appeared as a guest speaker, Corado called on Wallace and the Fire & EMS Department to give assurances that a 1995 incident involving Tyra Hunter, a local transgender woman, would not recur.
In a development widely reported in the news media, witnesses said a fire department rescue worker stopped administering medical treatment to Hunter, who was critically injured in a car crash, when he discovered Hunter had male genitals. Witnesses said the rescue worker began laughing and taunting Hunter.
She died several hours later at D.C. General Hospital. Her mother sued the city, charging that the Fire & EMS Department’s “first responder” rescue worker’s action, along with faulty care at the hospital, contributed to a wrongful death. A D.C. Superior Court jury later ruled in favor of the mother and ordered the city to pay more than $1.7 million in damages to the Hunter family.
The Hunter incident drew expressions of outrage from gay and transgender activists and prompted Fire & EMS Department officials to promise improved training and sensitivity of EMS workers and firefighters. But activists renewed their calls for better training in 1996 when two first-responder rescue workers arriving in a fire truck refused to treat a gay man injured in a gay-bashing attack that took place in Dupont Circle.
Department officials once again promised better training, but activists said little appeared to change. By February 2003, then-Fire Chief Adrian Thompson hired lesbian activist and training specialist Kenda Kirby as a consultant to help run what officials said was a revamped and improved sensitivity training program for the department.
In yet another development that startled gay and transgender activists, Kirby filed a complaint with the city’s Human Rights Office seven months later, accusing the department and high-level officials of discriminating against her based on her sexual orientation, gender and personal appearance.
She stated in her complaint that firefighters and EMS workers made hostile and insulting remarks about her in a series of messages posted anonymously in an online chat room for firefighters, with some of the postings made on department computers. Someone printed the chat room postings and placed a copy in her office mailbox, with the clear intent of sending her a hostile message, according to Kirby’s attorney, Mindy Daniels.
In a related development, Kirby said at least one assistant fire chief deliberated over whether she should use the men’s or women’s bathrooms shortly after Kirby started at the department.
In April of this year, a D.C. Superior Court judge ruled that probable cause exists to back Kirby’s allegations and stated in a written decision that a “culture of homophobia” existed at the department.
Daniels, Kirby’s attorney, said this week that city attorneys representing the Fire & EMS Department have since indicated a willingness to settle the case out of court, a development that Daniels called an “encouraging sign.”
Craig Howell of the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance said the group was hopeful that Ruben’s decision to appoint Wallace and his commitment to diversity training would bring about long-awaited improvements in the department’s dealings with gays and transgender citizens.
“The real challenge for Ruben will be to make sure his good intentions filter down to the rank and file,” Howell said.
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