Hate crime legislation in RI

Rhode Island might be small, but it's pretty cool that we live in a state that is so often ahead of the country on progressive changes. Right now, there are 10 states in the country that have trans-inclusive non discrimination acts, including Rhode Island. This is something that hasn't happened at the federal level--you may or may not recall that ENDA, the non-discrimination act that was introduced last year, did not included trans people, and only provided provisions for sexual orientation, something that was not only a cop out, but very hurtful to many. ENDA didn't pass because it didn't have support from either side--in an act of solidarity, the LGBT community didn't support the legislation. These laws protect people who are genderqueer, gender varient, or are transgendered from discrimination based on their gender expression.

While Rhode Island might be ahead in some arenas, hate crime legislation is not one of them. Check out this for more info on which states include sexual orientation and/or gender expression in their hate crime laws (if they have any). Including gender identity and expression in hate crime legislation is important to provide legal protection to transgendered people, who are often victims of violence.

Below is a reprint of a call to action to help lobby RI legislators on upcoming hearings on making the RI definition of hate crimes more inclusive:

Join GenderAction - a subgroup of the QA working on issues facing transgender and gender variant people. We're helping pass a bill to add "gender identity or expression" to RI's law defining hate crimes. It would also mandate that police be trained in gender identity/expression bias and that the state keep statistics on gender identity/expression related hate crimes. We need your letters of support! Write them as individuals, or as a group, and send them to: queer@brown.edu
The bill # is H5432
Group meetings are every Wed. at 7pm in Faunce 321

So get writing! It only takes a couple minutes!