Alaina Urquhart
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
In December 1972, he moved to London and enrolled at the Metropolitan Police Training School.
He was determined to parlay his pretty exemplary military service into a career in law enforcement now, which is a pretty, like, you know.
Dennis completed his training in April 1973 and entered the Metropolitan Police Force as a junior cadet, which is an entry-level position that, while technically a member of the police force, was more like admin shit and required the supervision of a parent officer.
So you gotta work your way up the ladder.
And when he enrolled in the training program, he envisioned finding the same level of camaraderie that he loved in the service.
His military brothers and sisters were like,
But he learned that the police force wasn't built around friendships.
And he found himself lonely and isolated again.
Where he eventually discovered that, you know, that the culture that he could exist in as he was, like the gay culture.
And in the small number of gay bars around the city, he kind of felt like he had found somewhere.
For the first time in his life, he didn't have to hide who he really was from the world.
But his unrealistic expectations made his early experiences with this community deeply disappointing.
He wasn't finding a lot of long-term relationship prospects here.
Because he wasn't really looking for that or treating people that way, it sounds.