Why Is Pink Washing Important To The LBTQ Community?
Dean Spade challenged my trust in legal reforms and their overall protection for minorities, especially those from the LBTQ community. I was ignorantly unaware that a concept such as pink washing existed. Dean Spade explained in the lecture that pink washing was, “when an oppressive harmful institution tries to use an emptied-out version of queer politics as a PR stunt for itself, but queer people don’t get anything out of it,” (Spade, 2016). One example that Spade used were the Hate Crime Laws and Anti-Discrimination Measures that were created and enacted by the U.S. government to eradicate abuse towards minorities. Although hate crime laws were created with the purpose to eliminate targeted crimes against certain groups of people, these laws
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They included: decriminalization of drugs, sex work, and other concepts, civilian review boards, queer and trans units in prisons and jails, “softer punishment”, and the proposition to create reforms that funnel individuals into other systems of racialized of incarceration/ control” (Spade, 2016). These proposed reforms, like civilian review boards, can ignite several problems within the LBTQ community because of the exclusivity that can arise. For example, one limitation that comes with civilian review boards is the question as to who has the right and qualifications to choose the members on the review board. Is it the government? Communities? Law enforcement? Civilian review boards are vulnerable to prejudiced beliefs if the government and law enforcement oversee the decision-making process. It would be unfair if an all-white, conservative board reviews the case of a hate crime committed against a black trans person. There would need to be some form of financial budget if civilian review boards are enacted because of the amount of cases they would receive. However, just like the education system, these review board systems could be subjected to the unfair distribution of funds if they are based on the community. Similarly, the decriminalization of drugs, people, and sex work would take decades worth of work because they are ingrained into our
They included: decriminalization of drugs, sex work, and other concepts, civilian review boards, queer and trans units in prisons and jails, “softer punishment”, and the proposition to create reforms that funnel individuals into other systems of racialized of incarceration/ control” (Spade, 2016). These proposed reforms, like civilian review boards, can ignite several problems within the LBTQ community because of the exclusivity that can arise. For example, one limitation that comes with civilian review boards is the question as to who has the right and qualifications to choose the members on the review board. Is it the government? Communities? Law enforcement? Civilian review boards are vulnerable to prejudiced beliefs if the government and law enforcement oversee the decision-making process. It would be unfair if an all-white, conservative board reviews the case of a hate crime committed against a black trans person. There would need to be some form of financial budget if civilian review boards are enacted because of the amount of cases they would receive. However, just like the education system, these review board systems could be subjected to the unfair distribution of funds if they are based on the community. Similarly, the decriminalization of drugs, people, and sex work would take decades worth of work because they are ingrained into our