Center for American Progress

How Police Fail to ‘Protect and Serve’ LGBTQ Communities of Color
In the News

How Police Fail to ‘Protect and Serve’ LGBTQ Communities of Color

Laura E. Durso discusses the level and types of police mistreatment and violence that LGBTQ communities of color disproportionately face.

Police killings of unarmed black men and women—such as this summer’s shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile—have highlighted the need, long recognized by racial-justice advocates, for a more critical examination of the ways in which police fail to “protect and serve” some of our country’s most marginalized communities. 

These killings have forwarded a national conversation on how institutional and interpersonal bias within police forces negatively impacts communities of color—including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities of color. In fact, a new report by the Center for American Progress and the Movement Advancement Project demonstrates how intersecting forms of racism, transphobia and homophobia create uniquely unsafe conditions for LGBTQ people of color who interact with police and the broader criminal-justice system.

The above excerpt was originally published in The Root. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Laura E. Durso

Former Vice President, LGBTQ Research and Communications Project