Difference

Firefighter Jock Juliet Draper Excels in a Man's World

Special to Outsports.com

Colorado Springs, Colo.--Firefighter Juliet Draper bench presses 250 pounds, squats 350 and dead lifts 425. This enormous strength makes her a champion in the Firefighter Combat Challenge, a competition that utilizes the skills used by firefighters in emergency situations. Dubbed the triple whammy by USA Today, Draper is black, female and gay and out, in a white, male and straight world.

The Combat Challenge is intense and difficult: Wearing 75 pounds of full bunker gear, firefighters from across the U.S. and Canada do what they do in a day’s work, but as fast as they can.

They must run up 5 flights of stairs carrying a 45-pound hose bundle, then haul another 45-pound hose pack 5 floors.  The next move is running back down to hit a sled 5 feet with a sledge hammer, then running the 140-foot serpentine to grab a hose full of water, dragging it 75 feet to hit the bull’s eye with hose spray.  The final step is hauling a 175-pound “Rescue Randy” dummy backwards to the finish line.  At the end, the exhausted firefighter teeters to the waiting paramedic, who pulls off the gear and checks to make sure they don’t need to call an ambulance. 

Draper (left) is a star in the competition. In November, in the Firefighter Combat Challenge Women's Division, the Colorado Springs firefighter and paramedic finished the course in 2:03.40, beating the old mark by 19 seconds.

Two days later, Draper was on her way to being the first female to complete the challenge in less than two minutes (her personal goal) when she took a fall.  Draper quickly recovered and won first place in the women's division with a time of 2:11, bringing the world title back to the United States after three years in Canada.

Draper’s first awareness that firefighting may be her future came at 4 years old, when she was in a traffic accident. Her dad, Charles Draper, suffered a broken nose and had glass in his face.  Her sister, Kitt Draper broke her leg, but Draper was alert, since she only had a scratch.  “The fire truck and firefighters who came to help were the coolest things in the world,” says Draper.

Growing up in Cleveland in the 1970’s, Draper knew she wanted to be in law enforcement, firefighting or the military. But drug addiction nearly cost her her dreams. In an article this June, USA Today recounted Draper’s troubled life in her early 20s:

“Homeless and indulging in marijuana, crack and ‘almost every type of drug short of shooting up,’ Draper, then 22, finally sought treatment at Alcoholics Anonymous and, a few months later, joined the Army. Despite relapses, Draper persevered. ‘Serious junkies are seriously determined to get what they want,’ she says. ‘So I just switched to the other side of that determined coin. Instead of looking for that 40-ounce beer, I went looking for that 400-pound squat.’ ”

Draper wound up accomplishing all three of her goals.  From 1990-96 Draper served in the Army as a soldier/firefighter, during which time she was deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Then she received job offers from the Colorado Springs Fire Department and the Colorado Springs Police Department simultaneously. 

A firefighter for 12 years, Draper has been with the Colorado Springs Fire Department for the last six. While in Army she won a series of athletic competitions.  Twice winning the Iron Horse powerlifting competition made Draper the strongest woman on the Fort Carson Army base, and then she followed with the 1994 Armed Forces Bodybuilding Championship.

Draper had no intention of spending her life in Colorado Springs; she imagined a larger and more accepting place.  However, in 1992 she met her life partner Pam Jones (pictured left). Jones had a child and a business, so leaving was not an option.

Draper and Jones met in a church, but not attending services. In 1992, Coloradoans were fiercely debating Amendment 2, a measure that attempted to deny gays and lesbians their civil rights. The Unitarian Church in downtown Colorado Springs hosted an anti-Amendment 2 political rally that Jones attended, while Draper had come for a 12-Step meeting. Being the only two black people in the room, they were instantly drawn to one another. In 1997, Draper and Jones, exchanged vows before God and friends.

There was never a “coming out” to the Colorado Springs Fire Department for Draper because her reputation from Fort Carson Army Base preceded her.  Draper and Jones were “out” in the army, in their easy-going way.  When Draper was deployed to Guantanomo Bay with her unit, she was allowed phone calls to Jones, just like the others families.

By the time Draper arrived in Colorado Springs, everyone knew the black lesbian was coming. Fire stations are known to be family-oriented because many times a firefighter spends more time with co-workers than with their blood family. One of the many customs in fire departments is to satisfy the sweet tooth of the firefighter. There are unspoken rules that family members show up with donuts, cookies, and ice cream to celebrate events and also firsts for the new recruit.  Jones showed up from the beginning just like all the other wives with her pastries.  If her fellow firefighters had issues with it, they’ve kept it to themselves. Jones continued to show up at stations and other functions with cookies in hand the way she’d done in the Army. 

A Plea for Fairness

Draper and Jones had given up on ever receiving the benefits heterosexual couples take for granted. Colorado Springs City Manager Lorne Kramer then put domestic partnership health benefits on the 2002 budget agenda; to everyone’s surprise it passed the city council by a vote of 5-4.  Jones determined that the health benefit would save her and Draper $4,000 per year.  Colorado Springs, though, is home to more that 50 Christian groups—many of them homophobic—and they made the same sex benefits a campaign issue.  A few months later, the benefits were taken away, even though the total cost for all who signed up was $7,000; .002% of the city budget. 

Draper and Jones addressed the mayor and city council in an impassioned plea for fairness.  Ironically, a few months earlier they were awarded for their contribution to the positive image of Colorado Springs with their Web site www.firejock.com and the world class performance of the firefighter challenge team.  Their plea and those of others  did not change the 8-1 vote to rescind the benefits.  Will Perkins, the author of Amendment 2 (which was passed by voters but later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court) was in the audience to remind the new council who put them there. 

Draper, 36, and Jones, 49, discussed and explored leaving Colorado Springs for more fertile pastures.  Other fire departments tried to convince them how much more welcome they could be.  However, Jones and Draper realized they are very respected in Colorado Springs.

“Let's just say we're a conservative organization, and this is a conservative town," R.C. Smith, Draper's commander at Fire Station One, told USA Today. "But she quickly became an informal leader because of the standards she set for herself. It motivated others. A lot of people here, including me, have started working out because of her. I'm sure she can make an impact with a broader audience."

After much discussion, Draper and Jones decided to stay in the place they love, to continue to strive for excellence and to focus on the similarities they have with all people and minimize the differences. They believe the primary problem with Colorado Springs is its lack of a visible gay community and so they started a gay tourism bureau of Colorado Springs with a Website www.outfortheday.com. Jones and Draper plan to bring hundreds of gay people to Colorado Springs to enjoy the city and surrounding areas.

Draper is passionate about spreading the gospel of fitness to other firefighters. Her attitude about this is as relentless as one of her six-day-a-week workouts. "I know it's a tough sell, but it's important," Draper told USA Today. "Firefighters don't just have stressful jobs, they have shorter lives. Life expectancy is six years past retirement. Why wouldn't you want to change that?"

For more information about Juliet Draper and Pam Jones, see their Web sites www.firejock.com, www.outfortheday.com and www.rogueamazon.com

Watch Draper perform at the The World Firefighter Combat Challenge, on ESPN2, Dec. 21 at 2 p.m. EST, and then repeated throughout the year.

Dec. 10, 2003