[NextGenderation]
info from QUEERS FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE about an event
this Thursday
night:
Contact: Joseph N. DeFilippis, Queers for
Economic Justice
(212) 564-3608, Joseph@???
March 15, 2006
THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS ARE A QUEER ISSUE
New Yorks Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Community Activists
Speak Out
WHAT: THE ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAWS ARE A QUEER ISSUE:
A Town Hall Meeting
WHO:
Kenyon Farrow, Communications and Public Education
Coordinator, New
York State Black Gay Network
Lucia Leandro Gimeno, Police and State Violence
Working Group, Audre
Lorde Project
Pilar Maschi, Former Prisoner and Family Outreach
Coordinator, Critical
Resistance
Rafael A. Mutis, JusticeWorks Community
Gabriel O. Sayegh, Director, State Organzing and
Policy Project, Drug
Policy Alliance
Claudia Spencer, Center CARE Director, the LGBT
Community Center
Moderator: Joseph N. DeFilippis, Executive Director,
Queers for
Economic Justice
The event is organized by Queers for Economic Justice,
and co-sponsored
by Bronx Defenders, CAAAV: Communities Organizing
Against Anti-Asian
Violence, Critical Resistance, the Drug Policy
Alliance, DRUM,
Gay Mens Health Crisis, The LGBT Community Center,
The NYS Black
Gay Network, The Queer Immigrant Rights Project,
Real Reform NY,
SNAP, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Welfare Rights
Initiative
WHEN: Thursday, March 16, 2006, 6:30pm 9:00pm
WHERE: The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
Community Center
208 W.13th Street (between 7th & 8th Avenues),
Manhattan
WHY: Studies have repeatedly shown that lesbian,
gay, bisexual and
transgender (LGBT) people, often facing stigma from
families and society at
large, and experiencing depression as a result, have
higher rates of
drug addiction than heterosexual communities or the US
population
overall. Therefore, laws that aim to imprison drug
users have a
disproportionate affect on LGBT people.
The Rockefeller Drug laws, passed in 1973, took away
sentencing
discretion from judges, and forced them to impose
minimum mandatory sentencing
for anyone convicted of drug-related incidents.
Despite occasional
amendments, including one last year, the Rockefeller
Drug Laws have
remained largely intact since their passing.
Activists and social service agencies serving the LGBT
community have
been reporting increased incarceration rates of LGBT
people under these
laws. The recent decision by the Board of
Corrections to close the
gay housing unit at Rikers Island has raised
awareness of the issues
that some LGBT people experience when incarcerated.
This forum,
organized by many community based organizations
serving the LGBT community,
will address the unique ways that LGBT people interact
with the
Rockefeller drug laws, and with the criminal justice
more broadly.
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