As we remember Pulse in these next couple of days, we should also be thinking about how we can do our part in trying to stop incidents like this from ever happening again.
That’s how one US Representative is thinking during this time.
Sean Patrick Maloney is New York state’s first openly gay Congressman and yesterday he reminded the world of a bill he introduced last year with the name of LGBT PRIDE Act.
Clearly, this is a great political move by Maloney. This is the best time to remind everyone on the House floor about the bill. Its Pride month and the anniversary of the Pulse shooting. Those are things that will be on the minds of Congressmen as they re-look at the bill.
As for what the bill is trying to do, the goal is for it to collect more data on LGBTQ crime victims.
The idea is that Anti-LGBTQ crimes are too prevalent, but these constant incidents are being ignored because there aren’t enough accurate reports on them.
As such, the LGBT PRIDE Act, with PRIDE being an acronym for Provide a Requirement to Improve Data Collection Efforts, is working to get more information into our hands.
One of the acts the bill will require is to give $25 million dollars to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That money will then get the CDC to collect more information about the sexual orientations and gender identities of victims of violent crime.
While some may worry that the mining of personal information like sexual orientations and gender identities is too intrusive, the overall goal is to raise a flag towards the violence that LGBTQ people deal with on a daily basis.
“Pulse wasn’t an isolated occurrence,” said Maloney who also happens to be the co-Chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus.
‘Anti-LGBTQ violence is way too common – it happens when a transwoman of color is gunned down in the street, it happens when a young gay person is bullied into depression or takes his own life.’
‘We have to get more information on where this violence is happening and we have to be more aggressive about doing something to stop it – and this bill is a necessary first step.’
