ABOVE: Grace Harris-Peek (center) with other GOALcfl founding board members. (Photo courtesy GOALcfl.com)
ORLANDO | After a career with the Orlando Police Department (OPD) spanning just over 20 years, LGBTQ liaison Sgt. Grace Peek-Harris has decided to retire, but will still be involved in the Orlando community as president of the Gay Officers Action League’s Central Florida chapter (GOALcfl).
Peek-Harris initially got involved in law enforcement after serving in the U.S. Naval Security Forces. After retiring from the Navy, law enforcement seemed like the logical transition to make.
After becoming an LGBTQ liaison for OPD, Peek-Harris noticed that herself and the other liaisons across Central Florida were not very well connected to each other. This inspired her to start GOALcfl, the only chapter in the southern U.S.
GOAL’s mission is to address all concerns of LGBTQ law enforcement members and to spread visibility and education throughout the community.
“The organization was established basically to ensure LGBTQ law enforcement is given a fair shake, so to speak,” Peek-Harris says. “We don’t have those types of issues in Central Florida simply because we are so diverse and the city and county is so supportive of the LGBTQ community. So we’re kind of gearing ourselves up more for doing things and being involved in the community so that people see that the LGBTQ officers are there for them and that they can turn to them if they have any issues.”
Though GOALcfl was just founded this year, the organization has already gotten involved in several projects including LGBTQ diversity training for new officers and a trip to World Pride in New York to do training with GOAL New York, the longest-running chapter of the organization and the one that GOALcfl models itself after.
Peek-Harris says she decided to retire from OPD because she felt like 20 years was a natural stopping point. she also wanted to spend more time with her wife, Elie Peek-Harris, and their 11-year-old son.
Though Peek-Harris is retiring from OPD, she will continue as GOALcfl president until the end of her term in a year and a half. She also serves as a board member for the LGBTQ+ Center in Orlando.
“As far as my retirement, I don’t plan on going and sitting on the beach all the time,” Peek-Harris says. “I’m really looking forward to being able to spend some more time in the community outside of law enforcement, but still be intertwined [with GOAL].”
Peek-Harris was the second LGBTQ liaison at OPD. Her predecessor, Capt. Jim Young passed on the position to her in Oct. 2017. There are now currently four other LGBTQ liaisons at OPD which Peek-Harris was overseeing, all of whom are active in the community as well.
“People in the community know who we are,” Peek-Harris says, “and that is probably the most important thing to me — that people know who we are and that they can turn to us.”
