Facing heteronormativity within the police Faire face à l’hétéronormativité en contexte policier En Fr

Résumé En

Based on in-depth interviews conducted between 2015 and 2019 with lesbian, gay, and straight police officers, the article analyzes informal hierarchies based on sexuality in the police occupational culture. While observing the erosion of the monopoly of the heterosexual norm over the last few decades in the police profession, the article argues that sexualities perceived as deviant remain a stigma with which concerned police officers must contend. Heteronormative assignments manifest themselves from the beginning of the occupational socialization in the police academy and then occur in a more or less significant manner depending on the ranks and functions. Facing heteronormative assignments, gay and lesbian police officers implement strategies of concealment, circumvention and negotiation in order to “cope” while preserving their inclusion in the peer group. The analysis of individual trajectories reveals a community of experience shaped by stigmatization, while highlighting the weight of intersectional dimension, both in the manifestations of stigma and in the possibilities of coping with it.