Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States

from my review in Monthly Review:

In 1513, en route to Panama, Spanish conquistador Vasco Nunez de Balboa ordered forty Quaraca men to be ripped apart by his hunting dogs. Their offense? Being “dressed as women” and having sexual relations with each other. The homophobia and transphobia behind Balboa’s actions are far from arcane relics of the past, and violence against LGBTQ people continues to this day, both legally sanctioned and in the streets.

In 2008, Duanna Johnson, a black transgender woman, was arrested for a prostitution-related offense in Memphis. At the jail, she was brutally beaten by a police officer. Her beating was caught on videotape, leading to the firing of two officers. Johnson filed a civil suit against the police department but, less than six months later, was found shot in the head a few blocks from her house. This was the third killing of a black transgender woman in Memphis in 2008 alone, and her murder remains unsolved.

Queer (In)Justice examines the violence that LGBTQ people face regularly, from attacks on the street to institutionalized violence from police and prisons. The three authors are long-time advocates and attorneys who work directly with people impacted by incarceration. Joey L. Mogul, a partner at Chicago’s People’s Law Office and Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at DePaul University, has advocated for LGBTQ people ensnared in the criminal legal system. Andrea Ritchie is a police misconduct attorney, organizer, and coordinator of Streetwise and Safe, a New York City organization focused on gender, race, sexuality, and poverty-based policing and criminalization of LGBTQ youth of color. Kay Whitlock has worked for almost forty years to build bridges between LGBTQ struggles and movements fighting for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice. Together, they center race, class, and gender/gender nonconformity in analyzing the myriad ways in which LGBTQ people have been policed, prosecuted, and punished from colonial times to the present day.

Rest of my review at: http://monthlyreview.org/2012/11/01/queer-liberation-means-prison-abolition ( )

This book is excellent. It was a "hard" read mostly because it is obviously not the most uplifting subject matter. This book is a grim reminder that we have come a long way but really not as far as we think and being able to marry is awesome but we can't forget about other "rights" either. I am talking about basic human rights (so called "gay rights" are basic human rights, period. Sorry if you do not get that.) and being treated equally under the law and in our courts and yes even in our prisons not just mainstream acceptance. We have to stop punishing people who do not fit society's norms (gender or otherwise) whether they be LGBT or straight. We have to stop thinking that because someone is different then they must be up to something criminal or out to get us all or make LGBT look bad. We also have to understand that some of us "get into trouble with the law" (gasp) and we should be treated equally in our courts and prisons and not worse or forced to be humiliated or abused or even worse assumed automatically guilty cause we do not fit some impossible white male hetero-normative world view or ideal. We all have to stop "blaming the victim" as well. I think this book should be required reading for all in law enforcement and legal professions. ( )

This book is an absolute must-read. It details this history of how the criminal system has preyed upon queer people throughout the centuries and how criminalization effects queer people more severely than other folks. This book covers in-depth the intersections of class, race, gender, and gender identity to present a chilling picture how police and society preys upon queer people; particularly poor, queer, people of color and offers them no recourse. The authors present on the ineffectiveness of domestic violence laws and hate crimes legislation.

I was challenged by this book to think in new ways about prisons and prison reform. I think this book should be required reading for all queer people and all people of faith who want to see justice for queer people. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. ( )