ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on exclusion and is based on interviews with gay and bisexual police officers. Two theoretical concepts guide the analysis in this chapter: stigma and dirt (the latter is understood as “matter out of place”, according to the anthropologist Mary Douglas). Experiences are presented that illustrate how homosexuality is constructed as something that does not belong in the police organization, through what the author calls stigmatizing leadership and collegial stigmatization. The chapter offers insight into how the exclusion of gay sexualities from the police force can happen through the use and reproduction of stigma as a source of power. The personal experiences from the officers have short names that are referred to throughout the book: “The hate meeting”, “The spy”, “The interrogation”, “The cruising terror”, “The Christmas party”, “The picture”, and “The code language”.
