There has been heated debate in recent weeks about the perceived increase in violence in Boystown and the need to make the neighborhood "safe" by increasing policing and keeping young people of color off the streets. Focusing on creating a "safe" neighborhood for residents of Boystown is a privileged and misguided path. I am not implying that acts of violence are appropriate, or that communities should not be free from physical and emotional harm. I am posing a shift in the way we envision our communities. Instead of focusing on making only Boystown safe for residents, the focus should be on creating communities free from violence.
When recommending increased policing to ensure safety it is necessary to frame the context of police violence against LGBTQ people. It was not a contingent of white gay men who stood up at Stonewall to fight back against the racist, homophobic and transphobic actions of the NYPD, it was an action led by trans women of color. Yet, business owners and Boystown residents who reap the benefits of their courage do not show up by the hundreds, outraged, when a young transwoman of color is arrested for walking down the street. Residents do not question this violence because she does not possess political and economic powerbecause she is a Black woman in a country that has been submerged in institutional racism for centuries.
Violence is not new to Boystown or any Chicago neighborhood. The young people of color targeted in Boystown are front-page news, while drunk white men engaging in constant violence in Wrigleyville go unnoticed; not garnering the same outrage towards "safe" streets. Residents have applauded the filming and postings on YouTube and Facebook of young people without their knowledge. Not only is this sensationalism, but it is outing young people without their consentan act that is fundamentally unsafe.
At the CAPS meeting on July 6, the majority in attendance were white gay men. Some of these men shouted "get a job" to homeless youth, who were calling on the community to provide services instead of demanding increased policing. According to the Department of Labor, 13.9 million people are reportedly unemployed. The same white men berating the LGBT young people should think about how difficult it is for a young trans woman of color to acquire a job and what it is like to face hatred every daythey should applaud her for her resilience in the face of intersectional oppression.
Many outraged residents of Boystown are unwilling to acknowledge their privilege. Being gay does not mean you understand oppression; it does not mean you do not possess privilege. I am a white trans-masculine attorney who was raised in a solidly white middle-class family on the North Side. Even though I am a trans person, I possess a great deal of privilege.
LGBTQ young people are drawn to Boystown for services and a ( false ) promise of diversity. The limited services available for LGBTQ people primarily exist on the North Side, which is a historical problem in Chicago. Services are limited on the West and South sides, from the lack of a hospital with a Level One trauma center on the South Side to the abysmal public-transit system. Additionally, there are no after-hours, all-ages venues; a lack of adequate mental health services; and no shelter for young people in Boystown."
Searching for quick fixes to problems is not the solution and it is not sustainable. Working to end racism, classism, sexism, violence, oppression, homophobia, transphobia and ableism is hard and uncomfortable work. It is not "safe" work. We won't find a solution to injustices through divisiveness. The $50,000+ spent by the Northalsted Business Alliance to put private security in the streets will not provide housing and social services for young people; it will not stop violence, and it certainly will not make anyone safer.
Change will happen when those same funds get put into increased services in all neighborhoods in Chicago. It will happen when local business owners start hiring young queer people of color. It will happen when the police stop profiling transwomen. Most importantly, it will happen when adults become allies to young people and start listening to them. We all need to listen instead of silencing each other, and learn how to be allies for liberation.
Avi Rudnick, Esq., is a project attorney at the Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois ( TJLP ) , which provides free, zealous and gender-affirming holistic legal services to low-income transgender people targeted by the criminal legal system in Illinois. Prior to joining TJLP, Rudnick was a public defender in Portland, Oregon.