Advocates for transsexuals applauded June Lo yesterday for bravely telling fellow transit cops of his plan to change from male to female – and lauded the NYPD for its sensitivity toward the groundbreaking decision.
“Kudos to the NYPD for moving along with progress,” said Barbara Warren, a director of the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.
At Tuesday’s Queens Transit Task Force roll call, John Lo, 31, an eight-year vet, announced that he’d prefer to be called June from now on and that he was undergoing hormone therapy and surgery to become a woman.
He’d recently grown breasts and grown out his nails and hair, so his co-workers weren’t surprised. Still, they burst into applause when the cop nicknamed J.Lo went public.
“[It was] a huge relief,” said Lo, New York’s first publicly identified transsexual cop, although Warren said she’d heard of others “through the grapevine.”
A spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg said, “The mayor supports Police Officer Lo’s decision . . . [It] will in no way interfere in Officer Lo’s ability to work for the department.”
But Sgt. Jaime Katz, president of the NYPD Gay Officers Action League, said, “The NYPD has made a lot of progress, but I know there are still many close-minded officers among our ranks.”