How a Baltimore-based organization is supporting LGBTQ+ first responders
Being a first responder can take a toll on anybody, but if you're also a part of the LGBTQ+ community, that toll can be even bigger to deal with.
That's why the group 'Responders For Pride' works to support the community and teach agencies how to be good allies.
LGBTQ+ stigma
Nicola Maguire has been a firefighter for 18 years. However, when she started, she wasn't out to her colleagues.
Eventually, she came out as a lesbian, and while she didn't experience any hate from them, there was still a stigma she grappled with—a stigma that's still alive and well today.
"I won't be the same provider, or firefighter, or police officer I am tomorrow if I came out today," Maguire said as she explained the sort of thoughts some LGBTQ+ members grapple with.
It's a stigma she is working to get rid of with the help of 'Responders For Pride', or RFP.
"So, we want to be able to make it [so] that they can be their true identity. Growing up as LGBT, you never get to truly grow up, just being your true self," she stated.
Mental health awareness for first responders
Maguire is the president and one of RFP's founders, created in 2023.
The group focuses on raising mental health awareness for LGBTQI+ first responders, sharing resources, and working with different agencies to develop liaison programs.
Last month, RFP put on its first ignite conference, providing hands on training to ten different agencies, including one based in Canada.
Allison Bingner and Sarah Corrigan, RFP volunteers and first responders, said the org's work has built a local LGBTQ+ support network.
"You have your firefighters, you have police, you have everyone that's there that understands everything, from not only the work that you're doing career-wise, but what it is in your personal life," Bingner said.
The network RFP curated has been essential in creating safe, welcoming spaces for LGBTQ+ first responders to be themselves.
"Use it as a strength instead of a weakness..."
WJZ first met Corrigan in 2022, when she first came out and transitioned.
"By having groups like RFP out there that make all of this visible to everybody, and showing the world you can be LGBTQ+ and still do this job, I think it really opens up the possibility for more people from our community to do this job," she said.
That's all RFP wants first responders to do: be themselves.
"Use it as a strength instead of a weakness within their departments, I think really would've helped me from the beginning to just be me and be the person I got hired within the department," Maguire explained.
To learn more about 'Responders For Pride' and get involved,.
