Forum calls into question NOPD’s treatment of LGBTQ citizens
29th July 2019 · 0 Comments
By Fritz Esker
Contributing Writer
On Wednesday, July 18, the Ashe Cultural Arts Center’s Power House Theater hosted (Inter)SEX/SHUN/ALL, a community forum and art exhibit focused on the experiences LGBTQ people of color have with the New Orleans Police Department and police departments around the country.
At the event, two University of Cincinnati professors, Drs. Tia Sheree Gaynor and Brandi Blessett, presented the results of a study they conducted regarding the NOPD’s treatment of LGBTQ New Orleanians of color and how those residents perceive the police department. Gaynor and Blessett’s article on the subject is currently under review by the academic journal Public Administration Review.
The study was a part of the W.E.B. Dubois Program, a part of the National Institute of Justice. The program’s goal is to increase public knowledge about the confluence of crime, justice, and culture in society. The National Institute of Justice is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice.
(Inter)SEX/SHUN/ALL was sponsored by the University of Cincinnati in collaboration with the 7th Ward’s Community Book Center and the local non-profit Brotherhood Incorporated.
Many participants in Gaynor and Blessett’s study complained that the New Orleans Police Department mocks and judges them. As a result, these LGBTQ men and women are reluctant to call the police if they need assistance out of a fear of being shamed, made fun of, or harassed. The study found that this hesitance or unwillingness to call the police occurred even during emergency situations.
“But a lot of LGBT men and women, we don’t believe in calling the cops because we’re scared we are going to get judged,” said one participant.
Another participant stated they felt “less than human” because of the attitudes, expression, and comments of NOPD officers.
These fears and concerns are not limited to the LGBTQ and transgender communities in the New Orleans area. In their presentation, Gaynor and Blessett highlighted numbers from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality.
In that survey, transgender respondents from around the country voiced similar concerns about turning to the police for assistance. Fifty-seven percent of the survey’s participants said they would feel uncomfortable asking cops for help if they needed it.
More than 58 percent reported some level of police mistreatment, including verbal harassment, being repeatedly referred to as the wrong gender, physical assault, sexual assault, or being forced by an officer to engage in sexual activity to avoid arrest.
Racial discrimination was also a factor nationwide. Thirty-three percent of transgender women of color and 30 percent of multiracial transgender women surveyed said policemen assumed they were sex workers. Only 11 percent of white transgender women said the same thing.
Gaynor called for the city to be more proactive in holding the police department accountable for any discriminatory practices. She also added the police department needs to build trust between officers and marginalized communities by listening to and working with community organizations.
“The NOPD, as an organization, has to be willing to put in the long-term efforts to engage in reconciliation with the most marginalized communities in the city,” said Gaynor. “Understanding the lived experiences of LGBTQ people of color is, I believe, vital in the NOPD making strides to address the mistrust that exists.”
In response to Gaynor and Blessett’s study, NOPD spokesperson Gary Scheets pointed to a January 2019 survey (https://nopdnews.com/post/january-2019/nopd-seeking-feedback-from-lgbtq-community-throug/) the department conducted online with the city’s LGBTQ community. Over 500 anonymous New Orleanians responded. Forty-eight percent of respondents who had interacted with an NOPD officer strongly agreed or agreed with the idea that the NOPD treated the LGBTQ community with “courtesy, professionalism, and respect.” Twenty-four percent were neutral or had no opinion, and 28 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.
Forty-three percent agreed or strongly agreed that stops initiated by NOPD officers were appropriate and not because of sexual orientation. Thirty-four percent were neutral and 23.5 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed.
“Our survey results suggest that most respondents do not believe NOPD is profiling citizens based on these characterizations (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression),” said Scheets.
Scheets added that all NOPD officers receive annual training on interactions with LGBTQ citizens. The NOPD’s policy on bias-free policing can be found at https://nola.gov/getattachment/NOPD/Policies/Bias-Free.pdf/.
(Inter)SEX/SHUN/ALL features the works of three New Orleans artists: CeCe Givens, Cfreedom and C. Gypsi Lewis. The exhibit will be on display at Ashé Cultural Arts Center’s Power House (1731 Baronne St.) until the end of August.
This article originally published in the July 29, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
