Andrea Ritchie
It’s OK to call Andrea Ritchie a crusader. A self-identified black lesbian police misconduct attorney, Ritchie has been on the front lines of defending women, the LGBT community and people of color against police misconduct and abuse for more than 20 years. Now serving as the co-coordinator of Streetwise and Safe, a project by and for LGBT youth of color in New York City, Ritchie shares strategies for safety and challenges discriminatory policing as part of Communities united for Police Reform (CPR), a coalition of like-minded organizations. In her legal capacity, Ritchie is the lead counsel in Tikkun v. City of New York, a ground-breaking case challenging unlawful searches of transgender people in police custody. She also co-authored “Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States” (Beacon Press 2011), along with influential reports on behalf of human rights organizations. She urges all of us to follow her lead. “Discrimination in the criminal system based on sexual orientation and gender identity, in combination with race, immigration status and poverty, demands the same outrage as if it was directed at LGBTQ people in any other context,” she points out. “It’s time for the LGBT community to challenge discriminatory, unlawful and abusive policing and mass incarceration. These are LGBTQ issues because they affect LGBTQ people.”
