Case Study: City of Sacramento
Cultivating Communities of Belonging
LGBTQ Pride and the Police Department
Overview
During the 2019 LGBTQ Pride Festival in Sacramento, an altercation arose between representatives from the transgender community and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, who organized the Pride Festival. Several community members and activists found it triggering to be celebrating Pride while LGBTQ members of the Sacramento Police Department wore their police uniforms in the parade.
These tensions stem from the severe police violence during the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which were the spark for the LGBTQ Pride movement. Those police offers, however, viewed their LGBTQ identities and their uniforms as markers of progress. In response, the community subsequently organized protests, increasing tensions between the Center and the police department.
Months later, the Sacramento LGBT Community Center sought out the Kahakulei Institute to facilitate conflict resolution and healing, with hopes that the 2020 Pride celebration would be more harmonious and celebratory for all who attended.
Solution
Given the acute tensions between the community and police department, our solution included a series of five healing circles which would put them on the path of getting into right relationship, or pono. To cool tensions indirectly, we first organized two circles with each individual party - two for the community, and two for the Sacramento Police Department. This was a critical first step to allow each party to authentically and fully share their truths and have space for deeper reflection before moving to the next step in the process of resolving conflict and healing.
Once the community members and the police department each had opportunities to sit with their own truths, we facilitated a circle for all stakeholders to come together. Our intentional approach allowed for tensions to cool naturally, after each party was able to express their feelings and let go of what wasn’t conducive to rebuilding a relationship.
Outcome
As a result of coming together in that fifth circle, the Sacramento Police Department heartily agreed to form a community task force, host a town hall, and engage in continued reconciliation - stepping stones towards building a longer-term relationship. As chance would have it, COVID-19 mandates forced us to cancel subsequent healing circles. However, we are still in conversation with the Sacramento Police Department, who is committed to fostering a stronger relationship with the community and remaining accountable for community well-being.
“As his (Chinese) name translates to “a scholar of soup,” Kevin takes the collective wisdom of everyone in the circle, adds all the right spices, stirs the pot well, and at the end everyone is nurtured and re-energized, but more importantly they have leftovers to take back to their organizations and communities. It doesn’t get better than that.”