It’s just a small piece of material, but it makes a big statement.
This June, the Seal Beach Police Department became the first in Orange County to wear arm patches that celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month. Elaborating on the department’s traditional patch, the colorful embroidery features a vibrantly striped seal frolicking beneath a rainbow, the icon that signifies solidarity with people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning.
When Officer Erin Enos brought the rainbow patch proposal to Police Chief Philip Gonshak a few months ago, she didn’t expect such a swift — and enthusiastic — answer.
A note came back with the word “APPROVED” written “in big letters,” Enos recalled, her voice quivering. “I get choked up talking about it.”
Colleague Dominic Sarabia had nudged Enos, who is gay, to float the idea with their boss.
“I probably wouldn’t have brought it up by myself,” Enos said. “Somebody had to push me to the forefront. I’m proud of who I am, but I’m still afraid of rejection.”
Sarabia, who collects law enforcement insignia as a hobby, came up with the design.
“Support for the patch has been overwhelming, not only from locals but from all over,” said Lt. Nick Nicholas, who publicized the applique on social media. “We’ve received letters, cards and donations from as far away as New Zealand.”
The Seal Beach Police Officers Association, a nonprofit, funded the patches – available to the public for $10. Proceeds benefit The Trevor Project, which focuses on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth. So far, the department has sold 200 and ordered 100 more, Nicholas said.
Arguably, the gesture makes the Seal Beach Police Department more progressive than Seal Beach itself. The city has yet to join other local communities that wave rainbow flags throughout Pride Month.
It’s an irony not lost on Mayor Joe Kalmick, whose son Dan Kalmick, a councilman in Huntington Beach, argued for the Pride flag now flying in that city.
“Maybe next year,” Joe Kalmick said.
Meanwhile, he is glad to see the police department carrying the banner. “What more tangible and widespread way to show that our city is inclusive?” Kalmick said. “Our police are out and about in the whole city, demonstrating our support for the LGBTQ community. It normalizes the concept.”
Seal Beach Police Officer Erin Enos and Corporal Joe Garcia wear the arm patch for Pride month in Seal Beach, CA on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. This June, the Seal Beach Police Department became the first in Orange County to boast arm patches celebrating LGBTQ Pride Month. Officers are not required to wear the patch. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)Police officers are not required to wear the patch, but many do – Chief Gonshak among them.
“The pride patch is a way we can visibly show support for the LGBTQ+ community and raise money for a very important cause,” Gonshak said.
Enos, 50, remembers what it’s like to feel alone and confused as a gay teenager.
“I grew up Catholic in rural California in the ’80s, when AIDS came to the forefront,” she said. “I worried that if I told anybody, they’d say, ‘Thanks a lot for the disease.’ I was too scared to tell my family and my friends.”
Painful as that memory is, Enos today can laugh about some of what she lived through.
“I tried to pray the gay away,” she said. “I prayed really hard, every night. And in the morning I’d say, ‘Damn, it’s still here.’”
Nobody at her Salinas high school was out of the closet – yet. “I thought I knew some gay kids, and class reunions have confirmed it,” Enos said. “At the time, we had no one to talk to, no one to tell us, ‘Things will be OK.’”
After graduating from Cal State Long Beach, Enos worked as a television news videographer. She didn’t discuss her sexual orientation with her parents until she was 31, around the time she was transitioning to a career in law enforcement.
“I built up all this courage, and then they just said, ‘Yeah, we know.’ They didn’t skip a beat,” Enos said. “My mother passed away 10 years later. I regret that I didn’t tell her sooner. I missed out on being my true self with her.”
Her 23-year-old niece had a completely different experience. She came out at age 12, confident that her family would back her. “She saw how our family loved and supported me,” Enos said. “So, it never occurred to her that anyone would think less of her.”
As Pride Month draws to a close, Enos said, she will miss wearing her patch – packed away until June rolls around again. “But I’m proud of our other patches, too,” she added.
The department also breaks out special insignia to honor Military Appreciation, Breast Cancer and Autism Awareness.
Unrelated to the timing of the patch, a group of Seal Beach residents happened to host the city’s first LGBTQ Pride parade on June 5. Officer Enos, accompanied by her wife, Jennifer Enos, led the parade driving a police car – lights flashing and the Lady Gaga hit “Born this Way” blaring from a sound system.
“People were dancing on the sidewalk and coming out of their houses to wave,” Enos said. “It gave me the chills.I thought, ‘I can’t be crying at work.’”
An onlooker stopped Enos to thank her for helping his friend’s gay daughter a few years back. The teen was going through a mental health crisis, and her parents summoned the police for assistance.
Fortuitously, Enos got the call. “It was a coincidence,” she noted. “There’s no rainbow Batphone.”
Sitting on the girl’s front porch, the two shared their emotional journeys. Today, Enos hears, the young woman is doing well.
“I told her, ‘If you’re going through a storm, don’t forget to dance in the rain,’” Enos said. “The sun will come out. And when it does, there will be a rainbow.”
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In a small but powerful gesture, Seal Beach Police wearing LGBTQ Pride patches - OCRegister
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