Yesterday, GLAAD and several other LGBT, civil rights, faith and labor organizations held a press conference at the historic Stonewall Inn to rally together against New York’s “Stop and Frisk” policy and to announce joint support for the June 17th silent march against police harassment.
Last year there were more than 685,000 stop and frisks and this year that number is set to rise to more than 800,000. According to the New York Civil Liberties Union, Black and Latino men accounted for more than 40 percent last year’s stops.
Furthermore, LGBT people are being targeted at alarmingly high rates, specifically trans women of color who are disproportionately affected by hate violence and police violence..
In the joint study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, it was found that transgender and gender non-conforming people are highly vulnerable the U.S., particularly in the justice system. The report found that 63% of respondents had experienced an act of serious discrimination such as job loss, sexual assault or incarceration due to anti-transgender bias. In addition, 22% of those who had interacted with the police had experienced harassment—with people of color reporting even higher acts of physical and sexual assault by police.
Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network also took the stage at yesterday’s press conference, commending the LGBT community’s struggle for liberation and fairness, while stressing the need for our varied communities to work together.
He continued, “We must fight this together and then fight in other areas across the board where this is discrimination […] we must all see each other’s spots as spots of hope for all of us.”
GLAAD is working with the NAACP, National Action Network, 1199 SEIU and several LGBT organizations to raise visibility about the effects of “Stop and Frisk” on LGBT youth and the transgender community—particularly trans women of color. LGBT people of are often victimized and dehumanized
For more information on how to get involved, visit ‘End Stop and Frisk.’ You can tweet about the march using #silentmarchnyc or #endstopandfrisk and spread the word via Facebook.
The march will take place on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 17, 2012 at 3 pm (at 110th, west of 5th).
