Police Abuse Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender People

Thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across the USA are victims of police abuse because of their sexuality or gender identity, said Amnesty International today (23 March), as it launched a new campaign to end this ill-treatment.
Amnesty research, including interviews with victims of police abuse, has found that LGBT people are frequently subject to police abuse which goes largely unchecked and unpunished.
The research also found that within LGBT communities transgender people, members of ethnic or racial minorities, young people and immigrants are particular targets of police abuse.
The new campaign is accompanied by an updated version of a report Amnesty published in 2005 based on interviews with victims of police abuse, activists, lawyers and law enforcement officials across the US.
Amnesty has sent the report to the US ambassador in the UK and requested a meeting with him, and will be highlighting individuals’ cases at Pride all over the UK this Summer and at the London lesbian and gay film festival later this month.
Cases highlighted in the campaign include:
* A lesbian from Athens, Georgia, who was forced into her apartment at gunpoint by a former County Deputy and raped in 2004. She said the officer vowed to "teach her a lesson".
* A Native American transgender woman who in 2003 was stopped in the street in Los Angeles by two police officers in the early hours of the morning. According to her testimony, the officers handcuffed her and drove her in the police car to an alley off Hollywood Boulevard where she was beaten, verbally abused and raped. After her ordeal she was thrown to the ground and told "that's what you deserve.
* A young African-American gay activist who was arrested at a bus stop when Chicago police officers for allegedly loitering with intent to solicit. Despite providing identification and corroborating information from the organization he represents, he was detained for two days.
Amnesty International is concerned that despite significant progress over recent decades in the recognition of LGBT rights in the USA, persistent discrimination has created a situation in which victims often do not report police brutality, and other crimes against them, because they fear a hostile or abusive response from the police, and because they know many reported abuses are not properly and impartially investigated.
Amnesty International is calling on US federal and state authorities to:
* take action to prevent discriminatory application of the law;
* to investigate all allegations of sexual, physical and verbal abuse against LGBT people by their officials and to bring those responsible to justice.
from Amnesty International