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Amnesty:
Widespread Police Abuse
Against
Gay Americans
by
365Gay.com from the Web, March 23, 2006
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New York City -- A report
released Thursday by Amnesty International details widespread homophobia --
including the use of torture -- by American police officers against gays,
lesbians and the transgendered.
The report says that thousands of LGBT people across the country are victims of
a system that fuels discrimination and facilitates torture, ill-treatment and
impunity.
The report "Stonewalled -– Still demanding respect" is based on interviews
conducted by Amnesty International between 2003 and 2005 with members of the
LGBT community, victims of gender-based violence, survivors of police abuse,
activists, lawyers and law enforcement officials across the US.
“The interviews reveal a very clear and worrying pattern. Cases of
beatings, sexual violence, verbal abuse, harassment and humiliation by law
enforcement officials against LGBT people take place on any given day in
detention centers, prisons, in the home, and on the street,” said Amnesty in a
media statement accompanying the report.
In one example a women from Athens, Georgia, said that in 2004 she was forced
into her apartment at gunpoint by a former County Deputy and raped because she
is a lesbian. She said the officer vowed to “teach her a lesson”.
Within the LGBT community in the USA, transgender people, members of ethnic or
racial minorities, young people and immigrants are particular targets of police
abuse, the report says.
A Native American transgender woman told Amnesty that in October 2003 she was
stopped in Los Angeles by two police officers as she was walking along the
street 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."
Despite the significant progress over recent decades in the recognition of LGBT
rights in the US, persistent discriminatory attitudes have created a situation
in which abuse of LGBT people is frequently dismissed as "normal" the report
said.
Victims often do not report police brutality and other crimes against them, said
Amnesty, because they fear hostile or abusive response from the police and
because, as they know, many reported abuses are not properly and impartially
investigated.
"There are still some discriminatory laws; but the bigger problem is the
discriminatory way in which many laws are applied, which often results in the
arrest and detention of individuals just because of their sexual orientation or
gender identity," the report said.
In another instance, in December 2003, a young African-American gay activist was
waiting at a bus stop when Chicago police officers arrested him allegedly for
loitering with intent to solicit. Despite providing identification and
corroborating information from the organization he represents, he was detained
for two days.
“Effective reform requires the backing of the highest ranks. There needs
to be a fundamental understanding of the right to freely express one’s sexual
orientation or gender identity,” said Amnesty.
The report concludes with a call by Amnesty for 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.
The report was released as an internal investigation began in Savannah over
allegations by a gay man who said police did not help him when he was attacked
last week.
"I think he saw I fit a stereotype that fits a gay person," Travis McLain said
of his attacker in an interview with the Savannah Morning News. "He didn't
beat me up because I have pink hair; he beat me up because he thought I was
gay."
McLain said Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police didn't search for the suspect,
wait for an ambulance or include all of the information he offered in the police
report.
The probe was ordered by Interim Police Chief Willie Lovett.
"Apparently there seems to be a lot of accusations that this agency is
discriminating against gays and lesbians," Lovett said. "That is not a
stigma I want to attach to this department. That is simply not true
For further information see
www.amnestyusa.org/outfront/.
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