NEW YORK – Today, national and international LGBT organizations – including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Lambda Legal, the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and GLAAD – joined with local LGBTQ organizations to urge New York City legislators to defend historic legislation banning discriminatory police profiling against a veto by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“We know all too well the impact that police profiling has on marginalized communities. LGBT people – especially transgender people and LGBT people of color – are unjustly targeted by law enforcement for harassment and policing at unbelievably high rates,” said Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force applauds the New York City Council for passing this historic law and urges all Council Members to stand up for equality and vote to override Mayor Bloomberg’s veto.”
The passage of the legislation made history just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act by creating the first enforceable ban against police profiling based on sexual orientation and gender identity, alongside race, religion, immigration status, age, gender, housing status, disability, and HIV status.
The statement issued by 34 local and national LGBTQ organizations noted that “from Stonewall to stop and frisk, LGBTQ people – and particularly LGBTQ people of color, LGBTQ youth and transgender and gender nonconforming people – have long been targets of profiling and other forms of discriminatory policing. The consequences have ranged from death to deportation, assault to arrest, homophobic harassment to humiliation.”
The statement’s signatories called on legislators to “continue to stand firm with LGBTQ people and communities of color, and to vote against efforts to veto this landmark legislation and turn back the clock on this victory. The safety of LGBTQ New Yorkers depends on it.”
“New York City has an opportunity to be a national leader by ending profiling that unfairly targets people based on their characteristics, including LGBT people and all people of color. Lambda Legal’s national survey of police and other government misconduct highlights the ways police profiling and violence impacts LGBT people and people with HIV,” stated Beverly Tillery, Director of Community Education and Advocacy at Lambda Legal. “Twenty-five percent of all respondents to our survey with recent police contact reported at least one type of misconduct or harassment such as verbal assault, sexual harassment, physical assault or sexual assault. Respondents of color, those who were low-income, and transgender respondents all were much more likely to report having experienced at least one type of this misconduct. These measures are an important step toward building a better relationship between the NYPD and our communities.”
According to The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (AVP) report Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2012, AVP found that in New York City in 2012 nearly 40 percent of survivors interacting with the NYPD reported police misconduct. Reports of police misconduct increased significantly from 8 in 2011 to 78 in 2012. The report also found that survivor reports of hostile attitudes from police doubled in 2012, with 43 reports, up from 21 in 2011.
A vote on the Mayor’s veto is expected in August of this year.
