Dozens of Asian, LGBTQ Groups Reject Hate Crimes Act
Organizations warn against more police, urge public health response
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
More than 80 Asian
and LGBTQ organizations
signed a letter
opposing the federal
COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act,
stating that bringing more police
into communities of color would
contribute to deadly violence.
The House of Representatives
on May 19 passed the COVID-19
Hate Crime Act after the Senate
approved it by a 94-1 margin last
month, with only Republican Senator
Josh Hawley of Missouri voting
against it. Backed by President
Joe Biden, this legislation would
expedite the Department of Justice’s
(DOJ) review of hate crimes
and delegate an offi cial at the department
to oversee the process.
It would increase coordination
between federal offi cials and local
law enforcement, while also boosting
public education efforts.
However, several organizations,
including GAPIMNY – Empowering
Queer and Trans Asian Pacifi c
Islanders, Equality New York, and
the Audre Lorde Project, are concerned
that the legislation lacks
a public health response to the
bias-fueled attacks against Asian-
Americans, which have surged
dramatically in New York City and
nationally during the COVID-19
pandemic.
“The bill would not provide
any resources that address root
causes of anti-Asian bias and
would not provide resources for
violence prevention,” noted the letter,
which was also signed by other
local groups including Red Canary
Song, the New York Transgender
Advocacy Group, the Jim Owles
Liberal Democratic Club, and Sylvia
Rivera Law Project. “The bill in
its current form would create no
systemic change to address racism,
only increase crime statistics
collection.”
Advocates blasted the legislation’s
use of law enforcement as
“anti-Black” and demanded more
research that could examine the
social issues contributing to the
recent uptick in incidents.
Dozens of Asian and LGBTQ organizations oppose the hate crime legislation pending at the federal
level.
“The economic distress, the
homelessness, the ways that
COVID has just devastated so
many communities and amid the
increase in mental health issues
— all of that is driving the violence
against Asian people, ” Chai Jindasurat,
a member of GAPIMNY, told
Gay City News. “Because Asian
people have been scapegoated for
COVID. ”
In the letter, the organizations said
the legislation fails to offer the proper
response to the rise in violence.
“While we wish we could celebrate
the historic visibility of anti-
Asian violence and racism, which
is as old as the colonization of
the Americas, the COVID-19 Hate
Crimes Act contradicts Asian solidarity
with Black, Brown, undocumented,
trans, low-income, sex
worker, and other marginalized
communities whose liberation is
bound together,” the letter stated.
They added, “Furthermore, the
bolstering of law enforcement and
criminalization does not keep us
safe and in fact harms and furthers
violence against Asian communities
facing some of the greatest
disparities and attacks… It also
ignores that police violence is also
anti-Asian violence, which has disproportionately
targeted Black and
Brown Asians.”
According to the bill’s text, the
legislation would also establish
grants to create state-run hate
crime reporting hotlines, and it
requires the DOJ and the Department
REUTERS/JEENAH MOON
of Health and Human
Services to raise awareness of
hate crimes during the pandemic.
Plus, if someone is convicted
of a hate crime and placed on supervised
release, the bill requires
that individual to complete educational
POLITICS
classes or community
service.
In the letter, advocates also
pointed to the 2009 passage of the
Matthew Shepard Act, which included
sexual orientation and gender
identity in federal hate crime
legislation. Advocates noted that
despite this law, transgender people
of color continue to experience high
levels of violence, underscoring the
need to change the “structural conditions
that lead to violence against
marginalized communities.”
The bill, which follows a jury’s
decision to convict Derek Chauvin
for the murder of George Floyd,
comes against the backdrop of
the police shooting of an unarmed
32-year-old Black gay man in Virginia
last month, as well as the
fatal shooting of Daunte Wright, a
20-year-old Black man in Minnesota,
and Ma’Khia Bryant, a Black
teenage girl in Columbus, Ohio.
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