Pride, Prejudice, and Policing: LGBTQ+ Lives and the Carceral State

Abstract

By analyzing the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and police in the United States through recent history, this thesis challenges the notion of law enforcement as the protectors and defenders of the state. Through historiographical and theoretical backings, this work posits police as entrenched in the exploitative systems of power within the American capitalist political economy. Additionally, a case study on the New York Police Department provides this work with the qualitative backings to question the efficacy of police-led LGBTQ+ initiatives. In order to build upon the existing frameworks that correspond with the intersection of the criminal justice system and the LGBTQ+ community, this work situates the theories of queer fragmentation such as pinkwashing, homonormativity, rainbow capitalism, and carceral pride within a larger conversation pertaining to the status of queer lives in the current American political economy. Ultimately, this thesis calls for short-term and reform measure to improve police-LGBTQ+ relations and prohibit the lawfulness of biased-based policing.