The evidence came in what may be a mostly-overlooked study of the New Orleans Police Department, but the shift in how the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is now thinking about anti-LGBT bias represents a profound and very important shift, particularly for transgender people.
The 150+-page “Investigation of the New Orleans Police Department” covers anti-LGBT police bias only briefly, and doesn’t say much that the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and our own people have been saying for years: there’s a lot of police bias against LGBT people, particularly when we’re African-American and/or transgender. What’s different is that DOJ is now viewing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as needing the same level of justification as that based on race and sex. Continue reading
