What has happened over the past few months in Brunswick with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and the subsequent effort to cover it up is disgusting. It’s clearer now more than ever before that Georgia must finally begin address violence against the African American community and all marginalized communities — and it needs to happen now.
The criminal legal system has failed time and time again to uphold the most basic tenet of democracy, that of equality. The American criminal legal system is indeed broken, and has proven itself deeply dysfunctional, consistently dangerous, and quite literally deadly. Black people, many of whom are LGBTQ, bear the brunt of racial disparities in every facet of the institution, from arrests to sentencing. Nowhere is this more evident than in the killing of black people by police. As early as elementary school, black children are overly policed, resulting in the spectrum of criminalization referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. We as LGBTQ organizations cannot back away from this outrageous injustice.
Georgia Equality joins the Equality Federation and its undersigned member organizations to stand in solidarity with our partner OutFront Minnesota in condemning the senseless murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. George Floyd was murdered while he was handcuffed and other officers looked on just two blocks from OutFront Minnesota’s office. This is unconscionable and should not have happened.
There is a national spotlight shown on our state right now, and for nothing good.
What has happened over the past few months in Brunswick with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and the subsequent effort to cover it up is disgusting. It’s clearer now more than ever before that Georgia must begin address violence against the African American community and all marginalized communities — and it needs to happen now. Click here to send a message to your State Senator urging them to support a hate crime law in Georgia.
House Bill 426 is a penalty-enhancement hate crime bill that would provide increased penalties for crimes committed based on bias or prejudice against someone because of their race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability. Nearly every other state in our country has a hate crime law on the books. Georgia needs to join them. Join us in sending a message today.
For us, at Georgia Equality, it’s a big week– twenty-five years ago this week, in 1995, Georgia Equality became an officially recognized organization with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. Help us celebrate by chipping in $25 now!
In a time when our very sexuality was considered a felony offense, and the promise of broad nondiscrimination protections and marriage equality were considered unattainable, a group of Georgians came together to stand up for all of us. Ed Stansell. Cherry Spencer-Stark. Brad Wilkinson. Aida Rentas. Charles Gossett. These are the founders listed on our original filing. We have all been a part of what they started 25 years ago, and that’s how we’ve come so far. Each of us has pushed a little each day and what we’ve accomplished together is truly amazing.
This year has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, and our plans for the 25th year with it. So, today we have an important announcement to make– our annual gala, Evening for Equality, will not happen as it usually would. We always enjoy the chance to gather and celebrate, so this year, I hope you’ll enjoy the series of online events we put together just as much and continue to #InvestInEquality. Keep an eye out for more information on these in the weeks to come.
