Gay couple become first to graduate from police academy together

Two men from Boston have become the first openly gay couple to graduate from a United States police academy together.

James Moccia and his boyfriend Shawn MacIver have been together for five years and graduated from the Boston Police Academy on Wednesday (17 June), WBZ-TV News reports.

Photo: Angela Rowlings

The pair say they’ve realised their dream of becoming officers after putting it off for years because of concerns about what people would think – but say they have been touched by the support they’ve received.

Throughout my life I just kind of put it on the back burner. I have a degree in fashion design,” said Moccia, who’s father and brother are arleady members of the Boston Police Department. “I had reservations even going into the academy, which is why I entered in my 30s rather than my 20s.”

He continued: “With the Commissioner hiring such a diverse command staff already, it kind of set a foundation for us as minorities to kind of feel more comfortable and feel more of a connection.”

Moccia added that while he and his partner acknowledged their graduation’s historic significance, they didn’t want it to define their work in the force.

“It’s not just here come the gay cops, that’s not how we want it to sound to people. We worked hard like everybody else. We scored 100s on the exams.” he said.

Speaking to the Boston Herald, he explained: “I think it’s important to note that throughout the entire academy experience we were never afraid to be ourselves.”

“I’m not going to lie. I was pretty nervous on the first day back in December. I sort of didn’t want people to find out because I didn’t want people to look at me differently. I wanted people to get to know us.

“We didn’t want to be known as ‘the gay cops.’ We’re cops who just happen to be gay. There’s so many other things we are. Yeah, gay’s on the list, but it doesn’t define us.

“It’s not anything we were hiding, but we wanted to prove ourselves as classmates and friends. And over the course of our training, we were welcomed by everyone. Our peers, our classmates, can say we were down in the mud, we were running, we were doing push-ups, we were going through the same training. The academy kicked our asses … but we’re still standing at the end of it.”

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