Law Enforcement and LGBTQ People

LGBTQ people are part of every state and local community in the United States. LGBTQ people have faced a long history of discrimination and harassment by law enforcement and have been targeted by laws that criminalize their identity and behavior. Mistreatment of LGBTQ people by law enforcement continues to the present day, especially against LGBTQ people of color, those with lower incomes, youth, and transgender individuals.

Discrimination and harassment by law enforcement against LGBTQ communities is an ongoing and pervasive problem across the U.S. This report presents research conducted over the past 25 years showing that LGBTQ individuals and communities face profiling, discrimination, and harassment at the hands of law enforcement officers. These experiences have been documented in a wide range of sources, including government and private surveys, incident reports and government investigations, qualitative research, court cases, and anecdotal reports published in the media and other sources. Across many types of research, we find that LGBTQ people of color, youth, transgender people, and LGBTQ people with lower incomes face particularly high rates of mistreatment by law enforcement.