LGBTQ+ people are significantly more likely to stopped, harassed, and even falsely accused by the police than non-LGBTQ+ people, according to a new study released by the Williams Institute. As a result, LGBTQ+ people are less likely to contact the police when they need support, the study notes.
“Participants in these studies have described being stopped for no reason, encountering hostile treatment when police discovered they were transgender, and having officers assume they were engaging in sex work or other illegal activities,” the report explains, detailing some of its qualitative research. “Participants in several studies shared that they have concerns related to their LGBTQ identity about contacting the police or that they avoid police in order to avoid negative interactions.”
The Williams Institute study analyzed 25 years of research on interactions between the LGBTQ+ community and police. The data came from surveys, incident reports, government investigations, qualitative research, court cases, and anecdotal reports.
The findings might not be astonishing to those familiar with LGBTQ+ history, most notably the police raids that led to the Stonewall Riots. While decades have passed since crimes explicitly targeted LGBTQ+ social behaviors, the report suggests that changes only run so deep and notes that it was only 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws as unconstitutional.
The Williams Institute study analyzed 25 years of research on interactions between the LGBTQ+ community and police. The data came from surveys, incident reports, government investigations, qualitative research, court cases, and anecdotal reports.
The findings might not be astonishing to those familiar with LGBTQ+ history, most notably the police raids that led to the Stonewall Riots. While decades have passed since crimes explicitly targeted LGBTQ+ social behaviors, the report suggests that changes only run so deep and notes that it was only 2003 when the Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws as unconstitutional.
Just as the censorious Hays Code from the 1930s to ’60s still defines aspects of modern media, past criminalization of LGBTQ+ identities has created an environment where discrimination and harassment are common.
“The history of criminalization and related tensions between law enforcement and LGBTQ communities have legacies that extend to the present day,” the report acknowledges. The authors also note the new waves of anti-trans laws, pointing to the fact that “Recent years have seen a rise in anti-LGBTQ legislation, with many of these new laws imposing criminal penalties.”
The analysis of survey data revealed that as well as being more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, and held in custody, LGBTQ+ people were also more likely to report verbal, physical, and sexual harassment and assault at the hands of law enforcement.
The study’s lead author, Joshua Arrayales, a law fellow at the Williams Institute, released a statement noting that all of this meant that LGBTQ+ people were less likely to report crimes, and that affects future data.
“Reporting crimes is essential for accurate crime statistics, proper allocation of crime prevention resources, and support services that address the unique needs of LGBTQ survivors,” Arrayales said.
As previous data already suggested that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be crime victims, this research supports the idea that many crimes against queer people go unreported.
While LGBTQ+ people are more likely to be stopped by police, face harassment, and avoid contacting law enforcement as a result, the statistical differences grow for specific groups. People who are part of other marginalized groups reported higher incidence rates; one study showed that 46% of trans people said they’d avoid contacting the police if they were the victim of a crime.
The study also found that these interactions often had a lasting impact. A “growing body of research” suggests that there are “associations between police violence and harassment and binge drinking, stress, depression, and other negative health outcomes.”
The Williams Institute study also provides action items for improving the current situation: “(1) legal and policy reform, (2) enhanced accountability and representation within law enforcement agencies, (3) community engagement and support, and (4) continuous data collection and evaluation of these initiatives.”
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
Dashcam footage of a 22-year-old driver pulled over in a Jacksonville, Fla. traffic stop has left lots of viewers with questions about police and excessive force.
Video of a traffic stop in Jacksonville, Fla., has gone viral. And although the incident occurred nearly six months ago, thousands of outraged viewers are now raising questions about what they believe to be excessive force used on a young Black man.
According to an arrest report obtained by News4JAX, Will McNeil Jr. was pulled over just after 4:00 pm on February 19 because his car “did not have its headlights or tail lights illuminated in inclement weather.” The report reads that McNeil Jr. was not wearing his seat belt and became “verbally combative” with the officer when he was asked to show his identification.
But recently released dash cam video paints a different picture and has many on the internet seeking justice for the 22-year-old driver. The footage shows McNeil Jr. was wearing his seat belt at the time he was pulled over and asked officers to call their supervisor to explain why he was being held when there was no rain or fog at the time he was stopped.
According to First Coast News, officers reported giving McNeil Jr. several warnings that they would break his window if he did not step out of his car. Although those warnings cannot be heard in the video, officers can be seen breaking the driver’s side window and striking McNeil Jr. in the head several times before he was forcibly removed from his car and forced to the ground.
McNeil Jr. told News4JAX that the incident left him with several injuries, including a concussion.
“I suffered a chipped tooth; my tooth went through my lip, and they slammed me on the ground and on the concrete. I had to get nine stitches. I also had a concussion and now I suffer from short-term memory loss,” he said.
In a statement on X, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office acknowledged the incident and said they are conducting their own investigation into the events leading up to the young man’s arrest.
“We are aware of a video circulating on social media showing a traffic stop represented to be from February 19, 2025. We have launched an internal investigation into it and the circumstances surrounding this incident. We hold our officers to the highest standards and are committed to thoroughly determining exactly what occurred,” it reads.
But social media has been flooded with comments from people who believe the proof that the police department is in the wrong is in the video.
“You saw exactly what happened because it was completely recorded. Your own officers stated the reason for his arrest in the video, and he was not resisting. The force used was completely unnecessary. This was a blatant abuse of power. The City of Jacksonville should be ashamed,” wrote someone on X.
Attorney Ben Crump, who will be representing McNeil, told News4JAX that the video evidence is clear that the police were out of line, “It should be obvious to anyone watching this video that William McNeil wasn’t a threat to anyone. He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights, and they beat him for it.”
An especially brutal incident occurred at an SF immigration courthouse Tuesday morning, as protesters attempted to block an ICE SUV that was apparently transporting an arrested immigrant, and the SUV simply plowed its way through the demonstrators.
After Monday’s ICE military-style sweep through a near-empty park in Los Angeles, we wondered this morning if this was a harbinger of things to come. It did not take long to get an answer.
The incident happened at about 11:15 am Tuesday morning at SF Immigration Court at 100 Montgomery Street, where some 20 protesters were attempting to block the transport of an apparent immigrant in custody who was thrown into a black SUV. The SUV drove through the group of protesters, and per Mission Local, federal officers also “pointed their rifles, deployed pepper spray, and shoved people to the ground.”
Warning: The video of this incident contains substantial profanity.
These events are captured in the video above from Mission Local. It begins as your typical SF protest scene, with demonstrators trying to blockade and prevent ICE agents from getting inside the building. There is much skirmishing and shouting between the ICE agents and the protesters, with agents using batons to keep the protesters at bay. Around the 1:14 mark it appears that agents do get their suspect out of the building and into the SUV, at which point, some eight to ten protesters attempt to block the SUV.
The SUV starts inching forward, slowly at first, often stopping as agents try to pull the protesters off the front of the vehicle. Once many of the protesters are off, the vehicle picks up speed. Only one protester still clings to the front of the SUV, and then it really picks up speed. The protester flies off the hood, fellow demonstrators come to aid that person, and there’s another unsuccessful attempt to block the vehicle the next block up, before it speeds away.
The SF Standard has their own video of the incident, albeit from several stories above, seemingly from a Financial District office window.
Bar Association of San Francisco immigration attorney Milli Atkinson confirmed to Mission Local that one immigrant was arrested and detained during the incident. So that is disturbing.
But most disturbingly, have you ever seen such a high percentage of law enforcement officers with their faces covered in masks, with no badges or identifying information, and mostly not wearing anything (other than their vests) that resembles a legitimate uniform? If these are all indeed sworn ICE officers, there seems to be a paramilitary push toward concealing their identities, and some strangely loose new decorum in their uniform standards under the Trump administration.
Mission Local adds that one demonstrator was pepper-sprayed at Market and Montgomery streets, though was then restrained by other agents. One demonstrator reportedly yelled at him, “Your parents were immigrants, asshole.” That site also adds that another ICE agent (or someone appearing to be one) “pointed a matte black rifle at protestors and press, including this reporter,” and that “An SFPD officer stood by and watched from a distance.”
In their own writeup of the incident, the SF Standard spoke to the protester who appears to be the person who held on to the moving SUV’s hood long enough to be jostled off. “I was bleeding everywhere,” said that person, identifying herself only as Sorin. “They were brutal to those of us trying to exercise our rights and protect our community.”
I watched videos of this protest and the complete violence of the police going full out assault against the gay protestors who were just standing there. The Christian group in anger at what the mayor said about them, so the next day blocked access to the town hall not letting reporters, workers, or people in the community into the town hall. The Christian group did not have a permit and violated sound level ordnances but the police did not try to remove them or force them to let people through to the town hall. But the police did again violently attack the counter protestors from the neighborhoods. It seems clear the police are pro the Christian haters who want conversion therapy done on LGBTQ+ kids to wipe out anyone not straight and cis. The police chaplain is on the fly for the hate group as you can see below. The Christian hate group wants to force everyone to live as their church doctrines demand. They are extremely hateful towards the LGBTQ+ community. They demand that people respect and accommodate their views but refuse to accept the rights of the LGBTQ+ community, not accept the rights that the LGBTQ+ communities are due. I will post the rest of the post by Joe. My. God. but at the end I will post a video that streamer Vaush made on this subject also. As Vaush says the prosecutors refused to press charges on many the police arrested. Maybe because they were innocent protestors viciously attacked by bigoted police. Hugs
In the days after a chaotic confrontation between police and protesters at a conservative Christian rally on Capitol Hill, several groups have questioned why the demonstration was held at Cal Anderson Park and how the city could have better prepared.
The rally, advocating “freedom from same sex attraction” and ”the sacrality of biological gender,” was permitted in the heart of the state’s most LGBTQ+-friendly neighborhood, in a park named for the state’s first openly gay elected official.It attracted scores of protesters who scrapped with police. Twenty-three people were arrested.
Local LGBTQ+ advocates and at least one City Hall politician expressed anger the permit was granted for Cal Anderson, alleging the location was intended to rile the neighborhood’s residents.
The Deputy Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced via a social media post on Tuesday evening the FBI will investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups regarding last weekend’s chaotic Cal Anderson Park rally.
Dan Bogino posted the announcement on X at 5:15 p.m., writing, “We have asked our team to fully investigate allegations of targeted violence against religious groups at the Seattle concert. Freedom of religion isn’t a suggestion.”
MayDay USA, which describes itself as a Christian Pro-Life organization, held the rally at Cal Anderson Park in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. It was met by LGBTQ+ protesters in a competing rally. At some point, police were called in, and there were multiple scuffles between the group and officers.
One of the prominent supporters of Mayday USA is former Spokane Valley state representative Matt Shea, of the “On Fire Ministries,” according to the Radical Women Seattle. Mayday USA organizers have set up a tour of five cities in the country, with Saturday’s event being held in what is considered the heart of the LGBTQ+ community in Seattle on Capitol Hill.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the far-right rally was specifically held at the park in Seattle’s known LGBTQ+ neighborhood “to provoke a reaction by promoting beliefs that are inherently opposed to our city’s values.”
In a statement, Mayor Harrell called Seattle “a welcoming, inclusive city for LGBTQ+ communities, and we stand with our trans neighbors when they face bigotry and injustice.” Harrell said anarchists joined the counterprotesters, which resulted in violence and arrests. He said the event organizes shut down the event early after being asked to do so.
Matt Shea, the far-right extremist cited above, has appeared here multiple times, most recently in February 2023 when a church then-affiliated with Shea was ordered to pay Planned Parenthood nearly $1 million in legal fees and a fine related to protests that “interfered with patient care.”
He first earned national headlines in 2019 when leaked chats showed his violent fantasies about executing non-Christians and when it was learned that he had participated in militia drills to train young men for “biblical warfare.”
Shea advocates for the creation of a 51st US state based on “biblical law.” He has also said that all American men who fail to avow allegiance to Jesus should be executed.
He was expelled by the Washington state Republican caucus but refused to resign even after the feds found that he had “participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States” by helping plan the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016.
Shea did not seek reelection in 2020 and is now the pastor of Covenant Christian Church in Spokane.
Robert Brooks, 43, died a day after being attacked by several correctional officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec. 9. His death has prompted a state investigation.
*** There is a video at the site linked above that is very informative and shows the man before the police killed him. ***
The office of New York’s attorney general released body camera footage Friday showing the fatal beating of a state prisoner this month by correctional officers who punched and kicked him repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.
The incident, which has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the officers’ union as “incomprehensible,” is being investigated by state Attorney General Letitia James. The inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died in the hospital a day after the Dec. 9 attack.
“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James said at a virtual news conference.
“These videos are shocking and disturbing,” she added.
Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers.
At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.
Robert Brooks as seen in body camera footage at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, New York, on Dec. 9.Office of the New York State Attorney General
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to begin the process of firing 14 workers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, where the incident occurred. They include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse. In the interim, all have been suspended without pay, except for one officer, who already resigned. In a statement following the release of the videos, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, said his office has launched its own investigation in an effort to bring “institutional change.”
“Watching the video evidence of Robert Brooks’ life being taken left me feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated,” Martuscello said. “There is no excuse and no rationalization for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life. This type of behavior cannot be normalized, and I will not allow it to be within DOCCS.”
James said the officers had not activated their body cameras, but they were still on and recorded in standby mode. As a result, she added, they did not capture audio and only recorded for 30 minutes.
Her office released the entirety of the four officers’ videos, which included some blurring.
On Dec. 9, James said, Brooks was being transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, also in Oneida County, to Marcy Correctional Facility. The events unfolded in a medical exam room before 9:30 p.m. Brooks was carried into the room hanging upside down with his hands handcuffed behind his back, one video shows.
The entrance to Marcy Correctional Facility state prison on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Marcy, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)Will Waldron / Albany Times Union / Getty Images
Without audio, it’s unclear what words were exchanged between Brooks and the officers. While he does not appear to physically retaliate in the footage, the videos present different angles, and at times it’s unclear what is happening to Brooks as officers move and stand around the room. After the officers yank Brooks from the bed, he is brought to a corner. Later, he is seen on the bed wearing only his underwear and being tended to by the nurse.
Brooks was taken to the hospital and died the following day. An autopsy was conducted, and “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by NBC affiliate WKTV in Utica.
In the wake of the initial media reports, James said her Office of Special Investigation would conduct a review and make the video public after Brooks’ family viewed it first.
“I have a responsibility and duty to provide the Brooks family, their loved ones and all New Yorkers with transparency and accountability,” she said Friday.
Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press briefing on Nov. 6.Lev Radin / Pacific Press / Getty Images
Brooks had been imprisoned since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend. State corrections officials declined to detail what led Brooks to be transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison, that night. The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but the union has previously said it viewed parts of the videos.
“What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day,” the union said in a statement this week, adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything NYSCOPBA and its membership stand for.”
Hochul said in a statement that the “vast majority” of correctional officers “do extraordinary work under difficult circumstances,” but “we have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse.”
Martuscello said the agency has expanded its body camera policy effective immediately, requiring all corrections officers to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with inmates.
The Correctional Association of New York, an independent prison oversight group, released a report last year after monitoring the Marcy Correctional Facility in October 2022. The report noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.
Brooks’ family thanked Hochul in a statement this week for taking action “to hold officers accountable.”
“We cannot understand how this could have happened in the first place,” the family said. “No one should have to lose a family member this way.”
Faefyx Collington (They/Them)November 18, 2025, 1:00 pm ESTShutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 