Why study LGBTQ+ people and policing?

We are in the midst of a national debate about policing in the United States. Much of that discussion rightly focuses on issues of race and racism. Often missing from this dialogue is attention to LGBTQ+ people and the diverse communities they comprise. What are their experiences with the police? How do they perceive the police? How do they make decisions about whether and when to seek help from the police? What do they think about various types of police reform? While there is a growing body of research on these questions, we continue to need a better understanding of how interactions between LGBTQ+ people and police unfold, how LGBTQ+ people experience those encounters, and how LGBTQ+ people assign meaning to the police. Policing the Rainbow addresses that reality.

What we do know is that LGBTQ+ people experience criminal victimization at higher rates than the general population, appear more reluctant than non-LGBTQ+ people to engage with the police, and have disproportionate contact with the criminal legal system--from policing to prisons. From its earliest days, the LGBTQ+ movement–what was then often called “the gay liberation movement”--faced violence and discrimination at the hands of the police. Perhaps the most well-known instance of such conflict was what has become known as the Stonewall Riots. After facing years of harassment and arbitrary arrest by the New York Police Department, the LGBTQ+ patrons of the Stonewall Inn revolted when the bar was raided on June 28, 1969. Today, historians mark this as the symbolic beginning of the modern gay rights movement.

The period after Stonewall continued to witness discrimination and abuse of the LGBTQ+ community by police. At the same time, over the course of the late-20th and 21st centuries, laws criminalizing the public gathering of LGBTQ+ people, same-sex intimacy, and more were repealed or fell into disuse, while new laws meant to protect LGBTQ+ people—such as hate crimes legislation—were enacted. There have also been concerted efforts in recent years to improve relations between the LGBTQ+ community and law enforcement, including creating LGBTQ-police liaison positions within police departments and mandating LGBTQ+ sensitivity training. Despite these new protections and attempts to improve relations, LGBTQ+ people continue to have disproportionate contact with law enforcement, endure disproportionate harm from the criminal justice system, and are incarcerated at three times the rate of the general population. Policing the Rainbow begins with this historically complicated relationship between LGBTQ+ communities and law enforcement in order to unpack what is happening today and offer a path forward for the future.