Standing in solidarity with Puerto Rico

The Task Force is a longtime ally of the Puerto Rican LGBT community. We’ve been working in collaboration with activists there to combat the epidemic of anti-LGBT violence, which in the past two years has cost more than 25 lives. The  Task Force’s Pedro Julio Serrano traveled to Puerto Rico last week to participate in a series of events designed to support the local struggle.

Starting the weeklong visit, he participated in a religious service at the LGBT welcoming and affirming church Cristo Sanador in Río Piedras. The Task Force was publicly recognized for its work in Puerto Rico.

The next day, Serrano participated at a protest at the Capitol to denounce the rationing of medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS in the municipality of San Juan. Protestors demanded equal treatment and access to proper services for patients.

One of the most important events was a training for prosecutors on how to deal with hate crimes. This is particularly critical due to the fact that even though the local hate crimes law requires authorities in Puerto Rico to investigate whether the murders were motivated by the victims’ sexual orientation or gender identity, not a single case has been prosecuted as such.

Later in the week, the Task Force joined other organizations, students, parents and teachers at a Hatillo school for a protest against the alleged discrimination and bullying of LGBT students by the school’s director. These students allege their movements have been restricted within the school premises, have been subjected to punishments without any reason and have been told not to hold hands with their same-sex partners.

Continuing with the effort against bullying and as part of the Boys & Girls Club Week, the Task Force also led a chat on bullying to the participants of the local club at the Luis Llórens Torres public housing complex. Almost 100 youth and volunteers participated and made a public pledge to stop anti-LGBT bullying.

Closing the series of events, Serrano participated in the launch of the “Dance, Don’t H8″ tour by Aleshander, a local singer who’s promoting a public service campaign to combat prejudice and foment respect for every human being. During his visit, he participated in several media interviews, as well.

The Task Force has been in Puerto Rico on numerous occasions to respond to the scourge of anti-LGBT violence. This includes responding to the killing of Jorge Steven López Mercado, a 19-year-old student murdered in Cayey in November 2009. In 2010, the Task Force’s National Religious Leadership Roundtableconvened one of its semi-annual meetings in Puerto Rico to stand in solidarity with the Puerto Rican LGBT community. Also in 2010, the Task Force also led a delegation of elected officials and activists from New York City and Chicago that traveled to Puerto Rico to denounce the epidemic of anti-LGBT violence.

Last year, the Task Force participated in the International Day Against Homophobia march in San Juan and has been very active in denouncing the attacks against LGBT individuals in Puerto Rico. The Task Force also assisted in the response to the brutal bashing of Francheska González, a transgender woman who was beaten but survived in April 2011.

The Task Force will continue to help local activists with efforts to curb the anti-LGBT violence and discrimination in Puerto Rico.

Dolphins

The green in every tree is you

The beauty of every garden is you

My wealth, my work, my master is you

Solitude, purity, pretense is you

There is no reality but YOU

~ Rumi

New study finds genderqueer people face unique patterns of abuse and discrimination

Reposted from National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Genderqueer people face distinct patterns of discrimination and violence according to a new study based on the dataset gathered for Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality.

The study, A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, was just published by the LGBTQ Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School. It examines the experiences of genderqueer individuals and others who clearly identified as neither a man nor a woman.

A Gender Not Listed Here found that, when compared to transgender-identified respondents surveyed in Injustice at Every Turn, genderqueer respondents said they were more likely to be unemployed (76 percent vs. 56 percent); suffer physical assaults (32 percent vs. 25 percent); experience harassment by law enforcement (31 percent vs. 21 percent); and forgo healthcare treatment due to fear of discrimination (36 percent vs. 27 percent). There were other measures in which transgender respondents suffered higher levels of discrimination or harassment.

“These findings aren’t just groundbreaking for our academic understanding of the genderqueer experience,” says study author Jack Harrison of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s Policy Institute. “As with Injustice at Every Turn, they are a call to action. No one should have to get up in the morning fearing they will be denied a job, abused by police, mistreated by a doctor or attacked while walking down the street simply because of their gender identity and expression. For genderqueer people, this is a harsh and unacceptable reality.”

Harrison authored A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey along with Jaime Grant of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College and Jody L. Herman of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

The study also found that genderqueer individuals had distinct demographic characteristics. Compared to other Injustice at Every Turn respondents, they were more likely to be people of color (30 percent were people of color vs. 23 percent who were people of color in the overall sample) and young people (89 percent vs. 68 percent were under age 45). These demographic findings mark a crucial new development in the understanding of the way race and age affect gender identity/expression-based discrimination.

Task Force submits testimony for hearing on ‘Ending Racial Profiling in America

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund submitted written testimony for today’s hearing on “Ending Racial Profiling in America,” held by the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.

The hearing is examining the disturbing presence of racial profiling in law enforcement and exploring proposed solutions, including the End Racial Profiling Act and closing loopholes in the U.S. Department of Justice’s racial profiling guidance.

Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey says:

Racial profiling undermines a pivotal principle in our nation’s criminal justice system: An individual is innocent until proven otherwise. Focusing on characteristics, rather than behaviors, to identify suspected wrongdoers is misguided, wasteful and even dangerous to those who are unfairly targeted. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of color know too well how easily it is to be singled out for harassment and persecution as people living at the intersection of racism and anti-LGBT bias.

We thank the subcommittee for holding the first hearing on this critical issue since 2001. We look forward to continuing the dialogue on how to bring an end to discriminatory racial profiling practices once and for all.

The Task Force testimony details how LGBT people of color are disproportionately affected by racial profiling. It particularly spotlights the deplorable treatment of transgender people of color at the hands of law enforcement, as found in the groundbreaking study, Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, from the Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality.

Injustice at Every Turn found, for example, that 41 percent of black and 21 percent of Latino/a transgender people reported being detained in a prison or jail cell because they are transgender, compared to 4 percent of white transgender people.

The Task Force calls upon the subcommittee to pass the End Racial Profiling Act and to work toward the measure’s full congressional passage; and strengthen and expand restrictions against racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies.

Election Day in Anchorage: LGBT rights on the line! Shared By National Gay and Lesbian task force

The Task Force has been working with One Anchorage for months to extend nondiscrimination protections to LGBT people in Anchorage, Alaska, and voters will decide the fate of Proposition 5 in today’s election. Early this morning, Task Force organizer Renee Rathjen joined enthusiastic One Anchorage volunteers who stood outside in 22 degree weather for a visibility rally to turn out the “Yes” on 5 vote.

One Anchorage has been holding get-out-the-vote phonebanks throughout the day with large turnout from supporters and volunteers. The Task Force has helped One Anchorage hold remote phonebanks leading up to the election to fight the opposition’s shameful TV and radio ads.

Hopes are high that we will defeat the opposition’s scare tactics to finally provide protections to LGBT people in housing, employment and public accommodations in Anchorage. You can read about the Task Force’s fundraising work on the campaign from our senior training manager, Trina Olson, who helped the campaign raise over $10,000 during her fundraising training and our work to tell our personal stories from field organizer Causten Wollerman.