On June 27, 1969, eight New York City police officers raided the
Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village. Opinions
vary on the exact cause, but most agree some form of police
misconduct sparked a riot. From this social tumult, the world began
to realize the importance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
rights.
Despite the incredible progress made, the LGBT community still
falls victim to the type of civil rights violations that may have
sparked the “Stonewall Rebellion.” Last week UCLA
students gathered in De Neve Plaza to remember violence stemming
from transgender-based hate and prejudice.
Amnesty International recently compiled a national study on
police abuse against LGBT communities. This report shows LGBT
communities in America are still frequent targets of police abuse,
and the officers who commit these violations are seldom held
accountable.
The various forms of police abuse detailed are discriminatory
enforcement, sexual, physical and verbal abuse, and systematic
non-response to reports of domestic violence and hate crimes.
The study found 28 percent of responding police departments
offered no training on LGBT issues, and the departments that did
offered few services. This lack of training, a seeming oversight to
some, often results in the reluctance of police officers to report
hate crimes and cases of same-sex domestic violence.
Maybe the most egregious incident documented is the case of
Kelly McAllister. After refusing a Sacramento County
sheriff’s deputy’s order to get out of her truck,
McAllister, a transgendered woman, was allegedly pulled from her
vehicle, beaten, pepper-sprayed, hog-tied, and dragged across the
pavement.
She was placed in a cell with a male inmate who choked, bit, and
raped her. After a medical examination proving the assault, she was
sent back and received threats from inmates and jeers from the
sheriff’s staff who accused her of enjoying the rape. As of
now, not one sheriff’s deputy has been reprimanded.
To underestimate the difficulties and dangers that police
officers face daily is pure ignorance, but so is not criticizing
the repeated actions of those officers who exploit their power
against the LGBT community. These abuses are not freak occurrences,
they are the predictable results of countless police officers who
are ill-informed and sometimes misdirected on how to appropriately
respond to LGBT issues.
We need to call on our officials to pledge their commitment to
ending the violence and discrimination against the LGBT community.
We need to urge our police departments to take action to fix these
gaps in police training. We need to speak out.
This week Amnesty International UCLA will be speaking out. On
Wednesday, in addition to hosting a bake sale on Bruin Walk, there
will be a speaker at Meyerhoff Park at noon. The group will also be
tabling on Thursday and Friday, and will be selling boba in Bruin
Plaza to raise funds for a Santa Monica rehabilitation center for
LGBT victims of sexual violence.
I urge you to join Amnesty in the fight to end this human rights
dilemma.
Fonss is co-president of Amnesty International
UCLA.