For more than 50 years, June has been considered LGBTQ Pride Month.

While many celebrations happen in large cities, some people on the Red Cliff Reservation are celebrating a recent promotion in local law enforcement.

When Jess Hall is out patrolling, the police pickup truck is a welcome sight for many young people.

“When I’m driving around the reservation, the kids come and ask me for stickers,” said Jess Hall, Police Chief for the Red Cliff Police Department.

Hall has become a role model to many people, for many reasons.

Recently named Chief of Police on the Red Cliff Reservation, Hall is the first known member of the LGBTQIA community to run the police department in Red Cliff.

“When I first became a law enforcement officer and started here in Red Cliff, I had just a little metal rainbow flag pin on my collar,” said Hall.

Chief Hall is non-binary, which means they use the pronouns they and them and don’t consider themselves to fit into traditional gender categories.

The impact of Hall’s representation can be felt beyond the borders of the reservation in many nearby communities like Washburn.

Nancy Hanson helps run the local the Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG chapter in Washburn.

She said Chief Hall’s non-traditional gender background could have a positive impact on people in the area.

“Anyone who has firsthand knowledge of how it feels to be in a group that gets bullied or picked on can be more empathetic,” said Hanson.

According to Chief Hall, when they were young, they didn’t see many people in positions of authority who reflected non-traditional gender norms.

They say if they had, it could have opened up a world of opportunity, and made a successful life seem more possible.

“Why shouldn’t our queer youth be able to look at doctors, lawyers and law enforcement and say, if I want to go into something like that, there’s someone who’s already done it,” said Hall.

Beck Vallez knows bullying all too well, they are non-binary and live in Washburn.

According to Vallez, seeing someone like Chief Hall could have made a huge difference in their early life.

“So it would have meant so much to me to just see somebody like that and be Police Chief or not,” said Vallez.

For Vallez, Chief Hall is giving them hope for the future.

“This is a point moving forward, when, things are going to get a lot better,” said Vallez.

And Chief Hall is hoping for a future, that’s very different from the past.

“I just want to be able to make sure that the generations that come after us have more options,” said Chief Hall.

Hall has served the Red Cliff Police Department for five years and has been police chief for six weeks.

They are among the first openly non-binary police chiefs in the nation.

To see the original report and read related stories, follow this link to the KBJR 6 News website.