Drexel graduate student Sean Hyatt was chosen to receive the inaugural Danté M. Austin Scholarship Award. Members of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) created the scholarship to honor the legacy of Danté Austin, founding member of GOAL, LGBTQ+ activist, military veteran and Philadelphia deputy sheriff who died by suicide in 2019.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A group of local police officers and other public safety professionals aren't only fighting crime, and aiding the public, but they're also fighting against the stigma of being out in the public safety space. Meet the Gay Officers Action League of Greater Philadelphia (G.O.A.L.). Their building bridges through community outreach, which now includes the Danté M. Austin Memorial Scholarship, in honor of a founding member of the organization who passed away in 2019.

Even the most hockey-obsessed among those in attendance didn’t pick up that one Flyer, Ivan Provorov, did not take warmups. It wasn’t until fans left the building that they started to see the news that Provorov refused to participate in Pride Night, specifically skipping warmups to avoid wearing the Pride warmup jerseys.

In an effort to distance itself from a racist historical figure, Philip H. Sheridan Elementary School in Kensington opened this school year with its new name – Gloria Casarez Elementary.

Former out deputy sheriff Dante Austin was honored in a May 13 memorial service hosted by the LGBT Fallen Heroes Fund in Washington, DC. Austin, who served as the Sheriff’s Office LGBTQ liaison as well as on the board of directors of Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, died by suicide in 2019.

It can be difficult to be thankful amid such a turbulent time in history. Bad news and uncertainty seems to come in all varieties these days, from the pandemic to discrimination to the wealth divide and the general anxieties of everyday life. Watching channels like CNN or MSNBC all day could make one think that we are in a hopeless state without any sources of comfort or joy. The same goes for being on social media (perhaps it’s even worse there). But we do have things to be thankful for in November 2021, and they come in all shapes and sizes.

The Greater Philadelphia chapter of Gay Officers Action League has sent a letter to District Attorney Larry Krasner expressing concern over a display of photographs honoring fallen police officers that was temporarily covered with a banner.

Benson Churgai of Northeast Philadelphia is the first openly transgender recruit to graduate from the Philadelphia Police Academy. “I struggled for a long time with who I was,” Churgai said. "I knew that if I continued to live my life as [a] female, it was not going to work out.”

The response in the Gayborhood, among other places: “Oh my God, you wear a badge, and oh my god, you’re actually a lesbian?”

While police-community relations have been under the national microscope, members of law enforcement in the Philadelphia area are working to improve relationships inside departments when it comes to LGBT officers. They have formed a chapter of a fraternal organization called the Gay Officer Action League or GOAL.