Lt. Markus Hughes (left), with patrol Officer Justin Morales, says he made no secret of being gay when he joined the Police Department in 1999.
BY ALYSSA MILES
NNB Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG— After he graduated from the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs in 1999, Markus Hughes made two life-altering decisions.
The first decision was to join the police department in St. Petersburg – 1,500 miles away – rather than sign up for the military or the Peace Corps.
The second was to make no secret of the fact that he was gay once he arrived in St. Petersburg.
Things were a lot different back then. That was years before public opinion, elected officials and the courts began recognizing rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people. St. Petersburg was not yet known as the city that hosts the biggest gay pride festival in Florida, and its police force was marked by the hyper-masculine camaraderie that typifies cops everywhere.
“It was hard enough to come out of the closet already,” said Hughes, 38, who didn’t want “to start over again” when he moved to Florida in November 1999. He is now the highest ranking openly gay male officer in the department and its liaison with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning community.
When the gay pride flag was raised at City Hall last year for the first time, Hughes helped Mayor Rick Kriseman do the honors.
His reaction to the historic moment? “Wow.”
Hughes was born in Germany but moved to Colorado Springs once his father retired from the military. His parents divorced when he was 12, and Hughes decided to live with his father.
Growing up in Colorado Springs was hard for Hughes, and the conservative, family-oriented focus of the city kept him quiet about his sexuality. It wasn’t until he attended the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs that Hughes began living an honest life. People were generally more “liberal and more open minded” in college, he said, and he felt he could be “who I really was without the fear of ignorant people.”
While he never came out to his father, Hughes believes he knew his son was gay and accepted it. Hughes recalls a specific conversation when he was worrying about life after graduation and was struck by a comment his father made.
“He said, ‘It doesn’t matter what you do or who you are, you always have a place with me,’ ” Hughes said. “I didn’t think about it until after he died…That must have been what he was trying to hint at… I think, deep down, he knew.”
When he told his mother, however, “she disowned me,” he said. He chalks it up to her age and background; “someone who has been raised in a specific mindset, you’re never going to change their beliefs or their stances.” After two years of estrangement, she reached out to him to rebuild the relationship. “I don’t know what turned her around… but she’s coming around very well,” he said.
After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry, Hughes applied to three places: the military, the Peace Corps, and the St. Petersburg Police Department. He was accepted and offered a spot with all three, but ultimately chose the Police Department because of the “warmer weather.”
Hughes encourages everyone to live openly and out, believing that friends and family will come to recognize you as such and be less inclined to vote against gay rights.
“They’re not sitting in the booth thinking they’re voting against gay rights, but thinking I’m voting against Markus’ rights,” he said. This stems from his belief in the positive contact theory – “when you have positive relationships and contacts with someone that doesn’t fit a stereotype, you develop new attributions to that group.”
“If no one knows a gay person, it’s easier to discriminate against them,” he said.
Hughes believes he can make a difference by being honest about who he is through community outreach efforts. “I think that people need to see, especially the younger generation… someone who’s willing to stand up, not be afraid, say who they are and be in the spotlight.”
He has attended 13 of the 14 St. Petersburg LGBT Pride Parades, volunteering for several, working as a recruiter and in 2014 participating as the event commander. One of the highlights of the Pride parades came when Assistant Chief Melanie Bevan, who is also gay, asked Hughes if he would be willing to set up a recruiting booth.
Hughes remembers “people being excited to see the department there in a capacity other than security, and were very thankful for their presence.”
His appointment as the department’s LGBTQ liaison has led to new outreach opportunities within the transgender community specifically. The transgender support groups in St. Petersburg were the first to reach out and contact Hughes after he was announced as liaison.
He was asked to march in and speak at the Transgender Day of Remembrance & Visibility that culminated in a candlelight vigil at City Hall Nov. 20, 2014. The support group holds monthly meetings; Hughes attempts to attend every couple of months.
“I think it’s important to be there as a member of law enforcement for them to ask questions, or bring up scenarios or whatever they want to do,” he said. “I can talk about a specific topic and just be there as a conduit for them, maybe just give them a little extra voice.”
Ten years from now, Hughes will be eligible to retire, but “will I?” is a question he asks himself. “Once you hang up that uniform, you’ll never go back,” he said.
He says he remains “cautiously optimistic” about the changes in equal rights for gay men and women and their ability to marry in some states. “It seems like, in 2015, it’s an obvious human rights issue. It’s not a special right or privilege. It’s an equal right, just like what everyone has, nothing more.”
Hughes became engaged to his partner in December 2014. They plan on marrying in 2016.
In addition to being the LGBT Liaison for the Department, Hughes is the mental health liaison, a Leadership St. Petersburg committee member, a mentor at Northeast High School, and a board member of both the Community Action Council for the Westcare Foundation and Leadership St. Petersburg Alumni Association.
You can catch him at the newly opened LGBT Welcome Center at 2227 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg. He plans on spending an hour there at the beginning of his shift every few weeks to “answer questions, talk, or just have a cup of coffee.”