WATCH: Police Dept Brought Recruits To A Gay Club For Diversity Training
Article excerpt
The Nashville Police Department held a diversity training session for recruits inside a gay nightclub during Pride Month, bringing trainees together with members of the city’s LGBTQ community. The session took place at Play Nashville, known around Nashville for its drag performances. Video shared by the mayor’s office shows recruits seated inside the venue, participating ...
The Nashville Police Department held a diversity training session for recruits inside a gay nightclub during Pride Month, bringing trainees together with members of the city’s LGBTQ community.
The session took place at Play Nashville, known around Nashville for its drag performances. Video shared by the mayor’s office shows recruits seated inside the venue, participating in a moderated discussion.
Officer Darci Stechman, the department’s LGBTQ liaison, told recruits to come prepared with questions before the discussion: “Otherwise it’s going to be awkward, and you’re just going to be staring at one another for an hour and a half.”
She added, “Nashville is very diverse, so we’re exposing the trainees to these different communities and letting them learn a little bit more about the people they may interact with within the community.”
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The video also shows recruits speaking with Councilmember Olivia Hill, the first transgender-identifying man elected to the Metro Council.
Nashville Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s office said the visit was part of the department’s standard diversity tour for recruits, not a one-time Pride Month event.
“Metro Nashville Police recruits do a diversity tour before they ever hit the streets,” O’Connell’s office said. “Mayor O’Connell is committed to a city for everyone and that starts by bringing people together.”
The mayor’s office and the police department both shared video of the training on social media.
The police training is one of several diversity initiatives promoted by Nashville government agencies in recent years. The Daily Wire previously reported that Nashville Electric Service (NES) employees participated in diversity training before a crippling January ice storm left 230,000 customers without power. NES employees were asked to recognize their “implicit biases” and whether they had a diverse friend group.
Trainings were required for all supervisors and managers, and modules were “completed by employees in 2023-2025,” according to an NES spokesperson.
O’Connell is known for his leftist ideas, including his focus on climate change and anti-ICE stance. In May of last year, the mayor doxxed multiple ICE Agents after his office released information on the interactions between ICE agents and Nashville emergency service personnel. The mayor’s office claimed the names were released by mistake.