Queer

How The Criminalization Of The Queer Community Affects Us All

July 29, 2015 Andrew Extein, www.centerforsexualjustice.org Educate! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality, Public Health, Queer, Sexual Violence

By Andrew Extein in Center For Sexual Justice - Sexual minorities, including queer and LGBT people, face many obstacles when navigating the criminal justice system. One especially difficult challenge is the treatment of sex within the legal system. Sex crimes and sex laws have had far-reaching repercussions, and queer people often find themselves targeted. There is a long, well-documented history of law enforcement entrapping queer people in prostitution busts and gay cruising stings. HIV status is increasingly criminalized nationwide. Trans* folk are harassed and singled out by law enforcement. Queer people are more likely to be targeted for civil commitment. Current sex laws ignore the needs and realities of queer youth, while seeking to criminalize their unique experiences. In jails and prisons, queer people, especially youth, are extremely vulnerable, often the focus of sexual and physical abuse by inmates, guards, and staff.

Equality Is Far Away: Conversation W/ Authors Of “Queer (In)Justice”

July 20, 2015 Joe Macaré, www.truth-out.org Educate! Book Review, Economic Justice, LGBTQ, Queer, Racial Justice

By Joe Macaré in Truthout - LGBTQ leadership has also had an impact on broader campaigns and movements around police accountability at both the national and local levels. It's well known that both #BlackLivesMatter and BYP 100 were launched by queer Black womenwho have consistently insisted on a framework for understanding state violence and anti-Black racism that centers on the lives of Black women, trans and queer folks. Of course, that insistence hasn't always been heeded - but Black queer women on the front lines in Ferguson, in the leadership of BYP 100, and in chapters of #BlackLivesMatter and BYP 100 across the country have made it clear that this is a nonnegotiable part of the current movement and moment.

Climate Activism: Erasure Of Queer & Trans* People Of Color

May 9, 2015 Ceci Pineda, www.bluestockingsmag.com Strategize! Environmental Justice, People of Color, Queer, Racial Justice, Trans

There is a dangerous silence around the impacts of climate change on our communities within academia, the climate movement, and even our own work to confront violence in our communities. In academia, there is scant research, literature, and scholarly discussion delving into how climate change will impact QT* communities, and in particular QT* communities of color. Yet across the board, the scarce literature that exists highlights how QT* communities are disproportionately impacted. Nonetheless, there is little to no acknowledgment of how climate change disparately impacts us or of our role in the climate movement. We are pushed to the back of marches and the visible narratives that arise linking queers and climate change erase our experiences and realities as QT*POCs.

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