Despite the overarchingly negative relationship between the queer community and police officers, San Francisco police officer, Elliot Blackstone, did a tremendous amount of work for the transgender movement. Through community meetings, he came to realize the want/need for education on queer issues. Although he knew very little about the topic himself, he found ways to educate himself in order to help educate those in the community who had questions and concerns on the topic. This included bringing in members of the queer community to speak as well as talking through these issues with his police district, eventually leading to police districts across San Francisco requesting that Officer Blackstone come and speak.

 

As Blackstone educated himself, he began to see a need for support specifically in the transgender community. The Tenderloin district was home to a multitude of underserved transgender women with very few resources. After some convincing and with the support of the Erickson Foundation he was able to start running the National Transsexual Counseling Unit. This unit opened up a dialogue between the trans community and police officers on a level that was previously unheard of. When these women needed support they were able to go to his office where he’d talk them through getting a sex change on their driver's license, and connect them with surgeons who could perform sex changes. Through the Erickson Foundation, he was able to travel across the country, speaking to policemen about “transsexuality”. Sometimes he would bring members of the queer community along with him to facilitate discussion between them and the police officers. It gave them a chance, not to just listen, but to get any and all of their questions answered.

 

Blackstone tackled issues such as the question of which bathroom trans people should use, convincing his police chief that they should not be arresting trans people for using the “wrong” bathroom. Sadly, the NTCU was shut down following his retirement.