Forms of Queer Injustice, by Mollie Baland

When the Spanish colonialized the Americas, they brought Catholicism with them and forced it on the Indigenous people. They enforced sodomy laws that criminalized the queer indigenous population. These laws would also call for the death of queer people in the Americas. For example, the conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa ordered 40 transgender indigenous people to be dismembered by his hunting dogs. The sodomy laws were put in place in most American colonies, and as time went on the old religious laws changed, however the criminalizing stereotypes of LGBTQ people remained. The criminalizing stereotypes then became archetypes that are embedded in our society. If we only had to analyze how to remove archetypes within the legal system for LGBTQ folks then that might be easier, however, LGBTQ community members may also be black or an immigrant or a woman. It is important to recognize the impact that American history had on other minorities, those who are not white, wealthy, and/or male have their own set criminalizing stereotypes that turned into archetypes. Throughout American history certain groups have been oppressed and criminalized based on their basic identities, and sometimes these identities interact. In order for Americans to work for justice towards oppressed communities then we must look at the negative characteristics that Americans have in their head about certain communities and reject them. In order for LGBTQA+ people to see more justice for themselves in the legal system then they must advocate for the members of their community that experience different forms of oppression and reject the archetypes that these other communities face.

            The LGBTQ community is more likely to experience violence at the hands of law enforcement than the “average” person. Members of the LGBTQ community that are also a part of another marginalized community is even more likely to experience violence at the law enforcement. The police are given a great amount of power in our country. They are allowed to use their own discretion of individuals that may be participating in further criminal activity than minor offenses. They are allowed to resort to violence if they perceive it as being needed in any particular situation. This is troublesome for marginalized communities, like the LGBTQ community, that are plagued with archetypes that paint them as intrinsically criminal. The authors of Queer (In)Justice give their readers many examples of law enforcement resorting to violence with LGBTQ folks where it was clearly not needed. One example in particular that they use is, ““Freddie Mason, a thirty-one-year-old Black gay nurse’s assistant with no prior criminal record, was arrested following a verbal altercation with his landlord and anally raped with a billy club covered in cleaning liquid by a Chicago police officer who called him a ‘nigger fag.’” (chapter 3) This is a situation Mason did not only experience violence at the hands of the police because he was queer but also because he was black. It is important for the LGBTQ community and the rest of the public to reject this cop’s actions due to both homophobia and racism because Mason’s personhood not only lies in the fact that he is a member of the LGBTQ community but also because he is black. The public needs to reject the “bad apple” defense of law enforcement because it is inexcusable for members of an institution that is built to serve and protect to only serve and protect privileged members the community.

Although, there should be an expectation that law enforcement be held accountable for the uncalled for violence that they participation, it is also important to remember that police officers can be members of the LGBTQ community. An article by NBC News recounts a situation where queer police officers were barred from marching in Pride this year by activists rejecting police brutality. They interviewed a gay officer named Rodriguez, who recounted his own experience hateful rhetoric he faced as a gay cop in the 80s. He had not come out at the time of this encounter but he still felt the fear that many in the LGBTQ community are forced to face. The says, “He recalled a particularly daunting incident when a fellow officer who had been patrolling Macombs Dam Park, where the new Yankee Stadium now stands, encountered a well-known gay cruising area. Later that day in the locker room, Rodriguez overheard him say, ‘F-----g faggots. If I ever find out that one of us is the f-----g fggot, I’m going to blow his head off ‘by accident.’’” (https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/police-pride-gay-cops-lgbtq-activists-struggle-see-eye-eye-n886031) Further, Rodriguez identified himself as a person of color and a member of the LGBTQ community that says he believes in police brutality because he has witnessed it. He gave an example in which he saw a trans woman running way from a group of men crying and bleeding, he asked if she was alright and she responded yes because she was afraid to ask for help. Clearly, it would be hard for the trans woman to identify that Rodriguez was hoping to be able to help but it is a powerful reminder that LGBTQ people exist in every community, even communities that the LGBTQ community doesn’t see as important to advocate for or protect. Of course, because Rodriguez is a police officer he is in a position where he can advocate for himself and doesn’t have to be afraid repercussions of the legal system, it is important to identify that he is a queer person of color who faces the same hurtful archetypes that other minorities face. There are members of the LGBTQ community that are part of other communities as well and in order to see justice for queer people then the members in these other communities need to be recognized as well.

The LGBTQ community has no choice but to face issues of intersectionality because queer people do exist in intersecting communities. Unfortunately, because we are a society with archetypes embedded in our psyches about various marginalized communities, we have a responsibility to try and be inclusive and understanding to everyone’s individual experiences. It is not until we understand what the archetypes that we unconsciously have are or what they do to other communities that there can be justice for the LGBTQ community or any other marginalized community in the legal system.