This month, Parvati Magazine speaks with Ana Conner and Karen Hall, two youth activists with FIERCE, a New York City-based grassroots organization for LGBTQ youth of colour.
Parvati Magazine: How was FIERCE founded and what is the significance of the name?
NEW YORK (PIX11) - Among the thousands of New Yorkers who take issue with the way the NYPD singles them out in their own neighborhood, the members of this demographic are certainly in the minority.
But Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender teens and young adults of color say their beloved West Village is not the safe haven it was in the past, and is now a hot spot for questionable or even illegal NYPD stop-and-frisk encounters.
On Thursday, a city council district 3 candidate forum was held at St. John’s Lutheran Church in the West Village and sponsored by FIERCE, an advocacy group for LGBT youth. Attendees came to hear from Democrats Corey Johnson and Yetta Kurland, the two candidates seeking Speaker Christine Quinn’s soon-to-be-vacant seat on the council.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin found New York City's controversial stop-and-frisk policing practices unconstitutional, ordered immediate reforms and appointed a monitor to oversee them. Mayor Michael Bloomberg responded in a press conference that afternoon, claiming that Judge Scheindlin's reforms would have a negative impact on the safety of New York families. "I worry for my kids and I worry for your kids," Bloomberg said. To his critics, it was a statement that exemplified the glaring disparity between the mayor's rhetoric and his actual policy regarding the welfare of children.
At a June 11 press conference outside One Police Plaza downtown, members of the City Council, LGBT advocates, and supporters of police reform joined three gay men as they recounted allegations that NYPD officers recently assaulted and falsely arrested one of them outside the 79th precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A nasty confrontation between three young gay men and police — which was caught on video — was the subject of an angry news conference outside One Police Plaza on Tuesday afternoon.
Gay rights groups and anti-violence activists, including openly gay City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-25th), denounced what they say is increasing harassment of the LGBT community by the NYPD, and called this latest incident unacceptable, 1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon reported.
“It is the police’s job to defend our community, not to attack our community,” Dromm said.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have indicated that they do not believe in bias-based policing. If this is true, then why the resistance to Intro. 800-A, a bill that would prohibit bias-based profiling by law enforcement officers? Currently, New York City already has laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion and national origin; however, discrimination protections do not extend to categories of age, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability or housing status. And the current rules lack an enforcement mechanism, which would be added by the new bill.
A number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy groups sounded off on allegations that people of color were being targeted by the New York Police Department's controversial "stop and frisk" policy, the Center For Constitutional Rights is reporting.
New York City Anti-Violence Project, the Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, Make the Road NY and Streetwise & Safe were inside of the courtroom where the federal lawsuit Floyd vs. City of New York was being heard.
A member of FIERCE spoke personally about how transgender and queer people are affected by stop and frisk and are often profiled with the assumption of being a sex worker.