Bi Cop Sues Lesbians for Discrimination

A bisexual police officer in the Bay Area testified this week in her discrimination suit against four lesbian officers and the city and county of San Francisco.

Former San Francisco patrol officer Lori Dutra says four other female officers harassed and defamed her because of her sexuality, according to neighborhood newspaper Mission Local. She testified Tuessay that she began getting harassed by her fellow officers because she started a committed relationship with a man in March 2007, therefore making her a "minority within the majority," due to the many gay and lesbian officers assigned to the Mission Station, serving the Castro area.

Dutra also said "nonlesbian women were treated differently" and tended to leave the station.

Despite strong performance evaluations from superiors, she was suddenly branded by colleagues as "being too emotional" to perform her duties in March 2008. She was temporarily transferred to the Behavioral Science Unit on Treasure Island.

Defense attorney Lisa Berkowitz said that her clients did not make any harassing remarks about Dutra or racist remarks about the man who is now Dutra's husband. Concerning Dutra's emotional tendencies, Berkowitz said the other officers "were simply documenting what they saw and sending it up the chain of command. They thought the problem was serious enough that they had to act."