Posts Tagged criminalization

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 9 years ago

Queer and trans youth of color in NOLA demand accountability from police

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, it will not come as a surprise to you that queer and trans people of color are routinely targeted by the police.

We Deserve Better, a new report by BreakOUT! — a badass organization working to end the criminalization of LGBTQ youth in New Orleans — highlights exactly the ways queer and trans youth experience discriminatory policing at the hands of the NOPD. Perhaps most importantly, We Deserve Better also highlights the resiliency of these criminalized communities, and makes common-sense demands to address issues of safety.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, it will not come as a surprise to you that queer and trans people of color are routinely targeted by

By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 9 years ago

Feministing Jamz: Women and queer people of color on state violence

Though conversations on state violence tend to focus on (presumed straight) men, women, queer, and trans folks of color have a huge stake in this conversation. Violence on behalf of the state affects women, queer, and trans folks of color directly in a lot of different ways — not to mention the very real toll of state violence on other members of our communities: our fathers, our brothers, our children. It should come as no surprise, then, when women and queer folks of color address these issues in their music.

Though conversations on state violence tend to focus on (presumed straight) men, women, queer, and trans folks of color have a huge stake in this conversation. Violence on behalf of the state affects women, ...
By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 9 years ago

Take Action: Ban the use of condoms as evidence of prostitution in New York

Despite the fact that condoms are widely held as essential tools in HIV and STI prevention – as well as being a very effective non-prescription method of birth control – just carrying condoms could get you arrested.

That’s right: As we’ve covered before, in New York and other places in the United States, condoms are routinely used by the police as evidence that the folks they are stopping are engaging in prostitution. If this seems impossibly nonsensical to you, it’s because it makes no sense, but unfortunately for everyone common sense is not the main driver of public policy. 

Despite the fact that condoms are widely held as essential tools in HIV and STI prevention – as well as being a very effective non-prescription method of birth control – just carrying condoms could get you arrested.

That’s ...
By Verónica Bayetti Flores • 9 years ago

Five things not to do when writing about trans women of color

TW: Transmisogyny

This weekend I got to see Laverne Cox speak, and it reminded me once again of how grateful I am for her, for Janet Mock, for our own Katherine Cross, for my girl Morgan Collado, and for all the trans women of color out there who are speaking their truths and generously using their words and time to shed light on their lived experience. I am so grateful for the work they’re doing, and for the increased spotlight on how we can improve the material conditions of the diverse communities of trans women. But when there is a sudden rise in mainstream attention to a set of issues that have long been marginalized, there are ...

TW: Transmisogyny

This weekend I got to see Laverne Cox speak, and it reminded me once again of how grateful I am for her, for Janet Mock, for our own Katherine Cross, for my girl

By Maya Dusenbery • 10 years ago

Support this campaign to challenge the narratives around parenting and addiction

The reproductive justice organization Young Women United, which recently helped defeat the 20-week abortion ban proposed in Albuquerque, is launching a new public education campaign around pregnancy and addiction. They’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to fundraise for a short documentary video to “shift the ways we understand substance use and addiction in our communities.”

Women who are substance using and pregnant at the same time face a criminal (in) justice system that only serves to shame and stigmatize addiction. Mothers who use are often judged and told they must love their drugs more than their kids or that if they really loved their kids they would simply stop using. We want to make a short video to highlight the powerful ...

The reproductive justice organization Young Women United, which recently helped defeat the 20-week abortion ban proposed in Albuquerque, is launching a new public education campaign around pregnancy and addiction. They’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to fundraise for ...
By Sesali B. • 10 years ago

India criminalizes gay sex, again

 

In a shocking decision, India’s supreme court overturned a ruling from a lower court that decriminalized “homosexual acts.” This ruling reenacts sodomy laws that make it a crime for consenting adults to engage in “intercourse against the order of nature.” My interpretation of this is: no sex that doesn’t involve vaginal penetration with a penis. Obviously this is extremely heteronormative; and according to NPR, the law–Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which isn’t often used for prosecution–is often used to target and harass LGBTQ people. Breaking this law is punishable by 10 years in prison.

 

In a shocking decision, India’s supreme court overturned a ruling from a lower court that decriminalized “homosexual acts.” This ruling reenacts sodomy laws that make it a crime for consenting adults ...

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