This annual report of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) summarizes known incidents of violence that occurred throughout the year against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (glbt) individuals in 16 distinct cities, states and/or regions across the United States. Its author is the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), a voluntary network of 26 community-based organizations and programs that monitor and respond to anti-gay violence within several cities, states and regions across the country. (view
report here)
Triangle Foundation is a founding member organization of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
For years, the Triangle Foundation has been monitoring and tracking targeted, anti-gay police actions across Michigan by various police agencies. These activities have involved harassment of gay men at public areas, such as parks, rest areas and similar venues.
The report, Bag A Fag, outlines and examines the serious ramifications of unchecked police power and abuse of authority practiced by a few police agencies in the state. The information and cases reviewed in this report should help one to better understand why the Triangle Foundation continues to place a priority on putting an end to illegal and unethical police actions.
Further, it is hoped that this study will lead to an examination of ways that law enforcement professionals develop remedies to perceived problems; remedies that do not involve extra-legal extremes, and solutions that protect the citizen from unwarranted police abuse.
While the practices examined in this report are limited to only a few agencies, and may reflect the behavior of individual officers in those agencies, it is important to understand the motivation behind those operations.
While this report was prepared in May 2000, it does not reflect updates with respect to the US Supreme Court decision in June 2004 which struck down every sodomy law in the nation. We are preparing a newer version that will reflect these changes and it will be available online soon.
This position paper takes a hard look at the much debated subject of hate crime legislation such as Michigan's Ethnic Intimidation Act. Critics of hate crime legislation often advance the deceptive argument that such laws would give "special treatment or protection" to some citizens based on their status. Such laws do not protect only certain specific groups, but all citizens based on traits that all citizens possess - religion, race and orientation.
