>> the committee will come to

order, we will now introduce our second panel of witnesses who will be taking questions. first will hear from miss kelley robinson, the new president of the human rights campaign, thank you. then we will hear from miss olivia hunt, policy director of

the national center for transgender equality. then we will hear from dr. elon mayer, distinguished senior, scholar for the public policy at the williams institute. then we will hear from mr. charles lehman, fellow at the manhattan institute. then we will hear from miss jesse look, ceo and director of inside-out with services. finally, we will hear from mr. brandon wolf, survivor of the pulse nightclub shooting. the witnesses will now be unmuted so that we may swear you in. please raise your right hand. do you swear to affirm the testimony you are about to give is the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god? let the records show that the witnesses answered in the affirmative. thank you, without objective, your written statements will be part of the record. with that, miss robinson, you are now recognized to be a testimony, thank you.

>> thank you, chairman maloney. thank you comer and members of the committee for huawei about to testify today. my name is kelley robinson, my pronouns are she, her, hers, i'm part of the larger civil rights organization working for human equality, for lesbian, gay, transgender and queer people. on the behalf of more than 3 million members in some quarters, i am proud to testify in support of this hearing, and demand united action to enter the rising tide of hate and violence targeting our community. i am so grateful for the strength and courage of the club q survivors testifying here today. compounding this tragedy is the fact that this instance is just one example of the violence but shattered lgbtq plus lives, our families, our lives for the past few years. violence and discrimination against lgbtqi+ communities is a tragic result of a society that values our lives, particularly the lives of black, brown, transgender and non-gender confirming people. this hate and violence is on the rise, it is fueled by

nearly unfettered access to guns, political extremism and rhetoric that is deliberately devised to make our community less safe, less equal and less free. violence has become a lived reality for so many in our community. even in 2021, one in five of all hate crimes reported to the fbi or motivated by anti lgbtq plus bias. these violent threats, disproportionately affected transgender people. over the last ten years, human rights campaign track over 300 incidents of fatal violence against trans gendered and gender nonconforming people. in 2022 so far, they reported the murders of 35 people. among the committee members lost this year, 85% or people of color, and 85% were transgender women. these acts of hatred have devastated consequences. often, these experiences leave community members, especially marginalized people more likely to live in poverty, to experience housing instability

and homelessness, and to lack access to opportunities that would allow them and their families to thrive. this violence does not happen in a vacuum. anti-lgbtqi+ lawmakers efforts directly increase the risk of violence facing our communities today. state lawmakers have advanced an onslaught of anti-lgbtqi+ bills to restrict where and how we can freely and openly be our true selves. in 2022, 344 of these bills were introduced across 23 states. more than 25 of these bills were ultimately enacted across 13 states, 17 of which have a disproportionate or targeted impact on transgender people. these bills often target the youngest among us, harming children and their families. they also target the trained professionals like doctors and teachers who care for them. these unrelenting efforts by extremist lawmakers help reinforce inflammatory narratives about the community, regardless of whether or not the underlying bills are

enacted. these have been weaponized many times in the past against our community, to enact discriminatory laws, to encourage extremist rhetoric and to enable violence. the recent increase in anti-lgbtq plus cleric amplify by lawmakers, fueling growing attacks in our communities, is happening in state houses, in schools, on street corners. yesterday, we released a report identifying 24 hospitals and providers across 22 states, attacked online. following this, leading and inflammatory social post from bad actors. just last week, california state senator scott weiner, himself, a gay, jewish man was a target of a bomb threat because of his support, working with trans youth and their families. included in the threat were two words. pedophile and groomer. these threats are being made in every corner of our country, targeting lgbtq+ people, our spaces and our allies.

it is happening in tulsa, where vandals firebombed a donut shop after it hosted an art installation run by drag queens. it happened in texas, after a pastor uploaded a video, asserting that gave people quote, lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head. we must take action, action to prevent future violence and harm against these communities. first, social media, lawmakers and other stakeholders must enable practices to fight this hate online. second, we must pass the equality act, to level the playing field and ensure that lgbtq+ people are protected from discrimination. third, we have to pass common sense gun safety measures to protect our communities from the most extreme acts of violence. ultimately, we all have to work to repudiate anti lgbtq+ rhetoric and falsehoods in the

strongest possible terms. because our lives are quite literally on the line, thank you. thank you. then we will hear from ms. olivia hunt, policy center for the national trans gender equality center. >> thank you, madam chair. members of the committee. thank you for convening this hearing and for shining a light on the causes of increasing violence facing the lgbtq community. working for the national center of transgender equality has been a dream job for me since before it started law school. there has been no greater honor in my career than being event here today to speak in front of the committee of my community this has been a dream job for me but also a job by apple one day no longer be necessary. the past year events make it clear that day still a long way off a long time ago my 47 on transgender americans has lives have been lost to violence since the member of 2021. we released it on november

18th. before dawn on transgender day of remembrance, of every 20th, the transgender shooting in club q met it was already out today. like some of the acts, the shooting at club q do not have another vacuum. this summer representative comer tweeted that we need to examine the root causes of increased violence in america. today, we are doing just that. this violence with catalyzed by cultural climate filled with anti lgbtq legislation. think pieces debating the ledge -- just asking questions. politicians and public figures encouraging their bases to target in threaten lgbtq friendly events in organizations. fearmongering in the press and on social media. most of these attacks, and the misinformation that fuels them, are targeted trans people. and far too often at trans youth. in 2022, the and the track 27 different pieces of anti-trans legislation across 35 states. 12 states indicted least one of these bills. more than 80% of them targeted the rights of vulnerable trans

youth and adults. in addition, this year politicians in several straits use administrative rather than legislative processes to attack the rights of trans people. the attorney general harassed the families of trans children, falsely labeling support of their children as child abuse. when politicians and pundits treat peoples lives as a matter of public debate, the media response in kind. giving anti-trans advocates a larger platform to share their hostile rhetoric. sensationalist had lines care more about attracting clicks then reporting the facts. for example, just days before the club q shooting, the new york times published a front page article perpetuating misinformation about gender affirming care for children. even one anti-trans policies are defeated, they impacted trans group -- by the 2021 study by the trevor project, 85% of transducer porter that the public debates around their civil rights, their place in society, left i'm scared, stressed, angry, and hopeless. even more concerning, the same

dehumanizing rhetoric that inflame currencies also -- around the general public. while politicians in the media paint trans people as something to be treated with fear and discuss, people who are already receptive that message take it to heart. it reinforces their prejudices. in their minds, trans people either become victims to be saved or villains to be punished. one example of this inaction is the misuse of the term, groomer. anti lgbtq activists have appropriated this -- used to slander lgbtq people and our allies is predatory, harmful towards children. in reality, trans people are significantly more likely to be the victims of sexual abuse and the perpetrator love it. now, this miso toronto you have become part of the political discourse around trans people. it is invoked as a reason to further restrict our rights in the name of protecting children. the same rhetoric has subsequently been used for justification's anti-lgbtq activism. heavily armed protesters have made numerous attacks or attempted intimidation against

family friendly pride events and drag reforms around the country. even hospitals have been targeted with bomb threats and intimidation tactics. based on social media figures spreading baseless stories, they are in their words mutilating children. there is a straight line that could be drawn from the legislation trying to strip trans people of our human rights to the increasingly hostile and inflammatory rhetoric proclaiming a sub threat to society. to the acts of violence that have taken for too many lives. the people engaged in these efforts, from the politicians and media efforts to normalize the dehumanization trans people, to the influencers who flew -- to the people brandishing firearms bearing culpability for the violence that ensues. the williams institute estimates there are 1.6 million americans, age 13 and up, who are transgender. we live in every state of the nation. we are librarians, your baristas, your postal workers, your i.t. department. your children, your doctors, your nurses, and your ministers. trans people are also your

constituents. transferable are part of the fabric of american society. we belong, we deserve to be protected, and we matter. thank you. >> thank you very much. dr. meyer, you are now recognized for your testimony. dr. myron. thank you. chairwoman maloney, ranking member -- distinguished member of the committee. i'm a public health researcher, a senior scholar of public health at the williams institute in ucla school of law. a member of expertise is the study of the effect of social stress related to prejudice and discrimination on the health of the lgbtq population. the lgbtq rights have seen significant developments over the past few decades. homophobia and transphobia are embedded in american history and culture they produce stress which i referred to as minority

stress distress intersects with stigma and prejudice based on other so other different lgbt subgroups, such as people of color, experience social stress differently every lgbtq person has to learn to cope with stress related to stigma throughout their lives. studies have concluded that minority -- can result in an array of mental health problems including depressive symptoms, subs suicide ideation and attempt. in recent years, we have seen a resurgence and anti lgbtq rhetoric and violence. including the recent shooting in club q, in colorado. violence against lgbtq people is not new. in several recent studies, analyzing data collected by the

department of justice of part of a national crime victimization survey, my colleagues and i found that all sorts of experience of violent situations, defined of rape, assault, robbery or aggravated assault, are more than four times higher for lgbtq the non-lgbtq people. assessing victimization among transgender versus a cisgender people, specifically. we found that transgender people had four times the rate of victimization. we also assess the distribution of hate crimes, the subject of violent victimization. we found that lgbtq people experience eight times as many hate crimes as non lgbtq people. lgbtq people are socialized, like most people in society, to believe that being lgbtq is wrong and to believe in stereotypical and stigmatizing

ideas, such as an lgbtq person, as an lgbtq person, they will never find happiness or a family that will love them. as children and youth, lgbtq individuals often experience rejection and even violence by families of origin. many are bullied in school. some are sent to, so-called, conversion therapies that teach them the various stereotypes and self hatred that mental health professionals say they should learn to undo. evidence also shows that lgbtq people are more likely to experience socioeconomic stress, including higher rates of poverty, housing instability, and food insecurity. specifics of populations, including trans people, bisexuals, lgbtq people of color, older lgbtq people are especially vulnerable. transgender people have seen

fewer positive social and legal changes in the past few decades then did sexual minority people. and increasingly hostile rhetoric in the past two years. gender non affirmation is a particular stress that affects the health outcomes of transgender individuals. gender not affirmation refers to the denial of recognition of a -- of a transgender person's gender. more probably their dignity and humanity. gender affirming treatment is one form of gender affirmation. research has shown that transgender individuals who receive hormones therapy or the surgical care that they needed had lower prevalence of suicide attempts, as compared to those who have not can receive the care they needed. in summary, research shows that stigma, violence, and discrimination remain pervasive stressors for lgbtq people.

while same-sex marriage have become more accepted in american society, lgbtq people still, like many nondiscrimination protections that would've been afforded them under the equality act. a lot more need to be done to afford lgbtq people equality, dignity and improve their health and well-being. thank you. >> thank you so much. mr. lehman, you are now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you to the committee to address you today. before i begin, i want to take a moment to acknowledge the members of the prior panel for their bravery in speaking out in regards to the horrific violence perpetrated against them. victims of hate crimes deserve to be heard. i applaud the committee for giving them this platform. i'm here today in my capacity as an analyst of crime, particularly hate crimes. bias motivated offense is a serious and pressing issue in the united states. some 7300 hate crimes for reported to the fbi in 2021

including nearly 1400 offenses targeting lesbian gay bisexual transgender individuals on the basis of their sexual identity. due to the basis of national porting, according to the national incident base recording system -- different hate crime verification through the states. these figures are almost or -- a dramatic undercount. given this opportunity to address lawmakers my priority is to advise you and how best to reduce the frequency of such events. in my limit time therefore i want to argue the best way to combat hate crime is to engage like other types of crime. hate based offenders are not specialists. the traditional criminal justice system is a effective way to create hate crime. many people, sadly, bear some analysts to others on the basis of their identity, including towards lgbtq people. the number that bear animus is almost certainly much larger than the number of people who will create a hate crime. this is, i submit, because bias

motivated defending also requires the anti social tendencies and lack of self control which characterized criminal offenses in general. to commit hate crime, it is not enough to. hey one must also feel entitled to act out that hate on another individual. as a consequence it a little surprised he crime offenders are not, as i say, specialists. they tend to offend in non bias motivated individuals way. degree from the new york colonel justice service captures this phenomenon. hate crime offenders very demographically from other offenders, they have similar more serious criminal histories across a variety of marriage. frequency across conviction and risk of arrest falling arraignment. the tragedy that is the highlight of today's meeting has no -- the club q shooter was previously arrested for making threats against their own mother -- that case was dismissed because

the family declined uproar cooperate. have prosecutors succeeded in convincing that prosecutions of people might be alive today. i'll pass a law enforcement also failed to subject the shooter to colorado's red flag law. a risk they did not see posed to the community. saying hey defenders are like other offenders does not mean that hate crimes are not different than other crimes. bias motivated offending is uniquely toxic to the mutual tolerance that makes a free and democratic society possible. americans have the freedom to disagree about issues that touch on matters of identity. such disagreement as possible, in no small part, because we refused to tolerate acting out of animus and violence. hating crime enhancement are proportional response to the egregiousness of this offense. what the proceeding does mean is the criminal justice system is a quick venue for reducing the frequency bias motivated offenses. this is particularly true as compared to approaches aim to

compare hate crimes by educating against or otherwise reducing bias. to be sure reducing violence is a laudable goal, even if it remains an open question, how do we do so effectively. at the population level most people who hate will never convert to hate to a crime. meaning education reduces very little poor all are spent. . rather, the members of this committee want to convict calm a hate crime they should do so by supporting the criminal justice system. but often police investigations, enter go to harry crime cases. put state and local prosecutors in special hey crime bureaus, including by coordinating information sharing and the challenging area of hay calm prosecution. increased federal hate crime penalties, and encourage the department of justice to pursue hate crime justice where local laws are insufficient. such as new york today, where the buffalo grocery shooter cannot be executed for his heinous effect, a situation that also applies in colorado.

hate crimes against lgbtq people and otherwise are a serious issue and we must take them seriously. doing that means treating hate criminals like the criminals are. bringing the full power of the justice system to bear on them. thank you for your time. i welcome the committee's questions. >> thank you very much. thank you miss pocock you are now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you chairman maloney, ranking member comer, and the members of this community. my name is jessie pocock, the ceo of inside out youth services where since 1990 we have built access, equity, empower with lgbtq i plus people. i believe my job is one of the most joyful and sadly necessary work that exists. inside out is the only lgbtq specific center in colorado springs. i don't know how many inside a alumni survive that night at

club q. i know that there is at least one who did not. let me remind us all, this is not okay. this is not normal. we all want what is best for our youth. we want them to be healthy, to have opportunities to develop skills for meaningful and productive adulthood we want them to feel loved and included in their schools, on sports fields, in their places of warship, at work, in their homes. we want them to survive. i would like to share the love and inclusion that we see in our community center daily. teens immediately welcome to you to make sure they are included. peer advisers refer struggling used to a trusted staff who support them. we see a culture of asking for help. spreading kindness, using our food bank and free therapist. we see dancing and dinners. guitar lessons, crochet, disney movies, dungeons and dragons. we see trust. the single most protective

factor that exists for use. we see hope, our walls are decorated with statements like, someone is so proud of you. and, i understand that i don't understand, but i stand for you. outside of our center we see hate. a local school board member recently shared a meme that said, when you are transgender and your pregnant next to a picture of poop on an ultrasound screen. it is not okay that we expect more maturity and compassion from our used than the public servants interested with their care. daily our staff sit with youth experiencing suicidal thoughts that are impacted by these types of harmful and inaccurate messages. it is not the fact that these use are lgbtq that puts them at risk. it is the way that our culture views them. their mental health impacted when politicians legislator weigh the rights. when they witness unmitigated hate speech on social media.

this is not normal, this is not okay. these are kids! this is why, in addition to direct service, inside-out advocates alongside youth for inclusive policy. having one say space is not enough. lgbtq youth deserve a safe nation. scared. since the shooting at club q that were keep coming up for me. students are asking us to be more incognito. less obviously lgbtq. they are scared they would be the next target. this is not okay. let me remind us, those at club q or those who fought and save lives. we have funded police departments here. we need police to enforce laws that prevent violence. here is the truth, politicians and pundits are spreading lies about anti-people. falsely in dangerously stating that lgbtq people are threats to children. this fourth rhetoric fuels hate

and division, and it works. inside out community center is respected of the best practice model for youth development. locally, statewide, and nationally. we are not the predators. we are the ones saving the lives of those preyed on through hay in violence. i a ploy you, start legislating the real problems. commercialize bigotry, racism, hatred, and mass murder. even simpler, i implore you to treat us as humans. lgbtq people are humans that have families who love, and tragically, who bleed. before you post on social media, think about the youth who read your words. words cannot harm. where it can spend compassion. where it can condemn those who speak and act out of hate. even if you don't understand, we need you to stand for us. my favorite note says, we noticed when you are gone, because we do. we notice who is gone.

ashley paugh, daniel aston, kelly loving, raymond green vance. notice if your public service is in service to their lives or even service to the hate that contributed to their death. notice to the real criminals are. hold them accountable. notice he was gone. these young people deserve the very best of us. stand for them even if you don't understand. if you don't, come to our center in colorado springs. we have a community of brilliant young people who will invite you in and help you learn. thank you. >> thank you very much. now, mr. wolf, you are now recognized. mr. wolf. >> thank you so much, chairman lonely, and the committee for having me today. being lgbtq in america in 2022 means looking over your shoulder before you hold hands with someone you love. and means watching your very humanity be litigated, day in and day out, on every cable news network and across every social media platform.

it means wondering if today is the day that hate comes armed with a clinch fist, or worth, an ar-15. it means if wondering today bureau little size of normal, the thing you told yourself you didn't deserve, comes to an end. my day came on june 12th 2016. pulse nightclub was one of the first places i ever went where i didn't look over my shoulder. where i didn't stiffened my wrist or deep in my voice to avoid detection. that night everything about pulse nightclub and normal. i went to the same bartender i always went to. order the same drinks i always ordered. as the night wound to a close, i stepped into the same bathroom i have been hundreds of times before. there's a poster on the wall with the painted faces a drag queens 90 well. there was a half empty cup teetering on the edge of the sink like my fall off. the water from the faucet was ice-cold that night.

there were gunshots. and liz gunshots. the hair standing up on the back of my neck. the stench of blood, smoke, burning the inside of my nose. a nervous huddle against a wall. a girl trying desperately, so hard, not to scream! i could feel her trembling on the tiles underneath us. there was a sprint for the exit. all atop this bang, bang, bang, from an assault weapon. a man filled with hate, and armed with a segue mc acts charged into paul's. in my city overland to, and lgbtq+ safe space and murdered 49 of those revolved. my best friends drew and juan took 19 of the over 110 rounds that man pumped into the club. i will never forget the thousand of disparate calls i

played to drew. or his family's house broken screams when i had to tell them that their child would not be coming home. i can never unsee both of their lifeless bodies in cold hard cash goods. for years, cynical politicians and greedy grifters have joined forces with right-wing extremist to pour gasoline on anti lgbtq hysteria and terrorize our community. my own governor, ron desantis, has trafficked in that bigotry to feed his insatiable political ambition and patel himself towards the white house. we have been smeared, defamed. hundreds of bills have been filed in order to erase us. powerful figures have insisted that the greatest threats this country face are a teacher with they them pronouns or someone in a wig reading redfish, blue

fish. all along we warned that these short sighted political maneuvers would come with a human cost. they have continued anyway. even as queer kids told us that they were scared that life was getting less safe for them. even at hate violence have escalated. children's hospitals have faced mounting bomb threats. as armed protesters started showing up at pride festivals and branches. a donut shop in oklahoma was firebombed for daring to host a drag show, even as five innocent people in colorado springs went into a space that was supposed to be safe with them and came out in body bags. the attacks have continued. we can be better than the. we have to be better than that. right wing extremism relies on this manufacture belief that it's poison is inevitable. resistance is hopeless. i contend taking stand is necessary. it is our duty --

we need to say, without apology, the people who endanger entire marginalized communities for social media content and fundraising fodder have no place in our politics. we need to hold accountable those who traffic in venomous bigotry to scorch the political points. we need to address how our session with easy access to guns takes dangerous hatred and makes it fatal. we need to say on equivocally, right here right now, that lgbtq lives matter. the trans lives matter. in this country that is not up for debate! words have consequences. unbridled hay comes at a cost. our stolen loved ones are not a talking point. they are missing faces at birthday parties. empty seats at dinner tables. they paid the price for militarized hay in this country. it is high time that congress gets serious about the cost of anti lgbtq hatred.

commit to honor those in its crosshairs with real action. the simple truth is this, we just want to live. is that so much to ask? the gentleman's time has expired. i think all of the panelists. an hour gonna myself for five minutes for questions. the violence that took place at club q follows years of long efforts by some state lawmakers to erase lgbtq+ people from school curriculum, limit their access to health care, and undermined ability to fully participate in society. now, state lawmakers are not alone. there have been many actions here in congress pushing the same kind of draconian extremist policies. for example, more than 30 house republicans introduced their own version of florida's, don't say gay or trans law which

would restrict federal funding for schools that insist on lgbtq i and those in their curriculum. how would a federal policy suppressing, even mentioning lgbtq plus i people in classrooms further undermine the ability of lgbtqi+ americans to live authentically in safely? miss robinson? >> thank you for the question. it is so critically important. what we teach our kids matters. we are teaching a curriculum that not only shows them who our history is but what we can be in the future. what we value. who matters, who deserves dignity and respect. if we erase lgbtqi+ people from the curriculum, it raises a value in our lives. as brandon said, this is our opportunity to be better. we can do that. it starts with how we educate our children. i also want to be clear that when we allow these pieces of

legislation to move forward that a race and dehumanize us. what it does is create a dangerous environment that does support and feed the seeds of hatred that exist in our world. it is not only dangerous, it is violent to our people. >> thank you miss pocock, well what a federal don't say gay or trans law mean for the federal lgbtq youth navigating their identity in communities across the country, from your experience? >> you know, we worked really hard on a similar don't say gay bill that was being proposed in our state. the truth is, we all need mentors, examples that we can grow into and see ourselves in. when we need as a nation are hiding our faces, our experiences, or our contributions to this nation,

it really impacts young people and their ability to see others like them. their ability to learn how we have contributed to this nation. more than that, it is erasure, and it hurts. our young people tell us that what they see, here, and feel when school board member, politicians, are advocating to erase them is that they feel like they don't belong. they feel like their public schools are not for them. it is so critically important that we are always cheering these young people on. one real simple way to do that is to give them access to folks like me, and those of us on the panel who are lgbtq, and contributing incredible human beings in this world, they can be true. they just need us to support them and show us how. >> following the enactment of florida's don't say gay or trans law anti lgbtq i plus

rhetoric on social media surged by more than 400%. astonishingly. dr. meyer, what is the relationship between this surge and anti-lgbtqi+ rhetoric and the kind of violence that took place at club q last month? >> i think, as was mentioned already in the panel, this kind of incitement encourages people to an act what they think is righteous because of religious convictions, and other types of ideologies that are portrayed on social media. clearly, this is creating an environment where such pilots violence is seen as not only

acceptable but, as i said, righteous and desirable. causing lgbtqi+ people a lot of harm, not just those who experience the violence but also everybody in the community who witnesses it. >> my time has expired but -- okay. i will come back at the end with more questions. democrats, we have pushed for policies to protect and advance the health, safety, and rights of lgbtq plus people. by time is up, i will ask more questions in the second round. now two misses foxx. >> thank you very much, madam chair. mr. lehman, is crime increasing in america? >> it is hard to give a yes or no answer. i would say certain categories of crime, homicide, car theft,

shootings, pretty uniform over the past three years. other categories of crime, possibly over the past year. comparing the baseline. certain cities it is dramatic across the board. so, broadly, yes. >> other particular parts of america that are seeing larger increases in crime? >> i think, in general, crime is boko haram in in large cities. i would debate the reason why. some of it is concentration of population, but, yes. >> do you have an idea of why crime is increasing faster in these areas? >> i think there are a couple of factors. perhaps an easy answer, maybe you're looking for, i don't know if there are easy answers, certainly policy is not helping. some of these jurisdictions have reduced police capacity or have increased restrictions on policing. that doesn't help the problem. i think they're there longer term issue with the capacity or

criminal justice system. since the early days of 2020, across the board, certainly in those areas policy is not helping. >> so, for years the committee of democrats have called for the defunding of the police. has that made for good policy? has that reduced crime? >> i will know that many jurisdictions have tried to defund the police and were unsuccessful because there is overwhelmingly unpopular. in the aggregate, certainly jurisdictions that move forward with reducing police is experiencing a large majority in crime. one of the few findings we have this pretty overwhelming in the certainty is more cops to discuss rhyme. if you spend less on cops, you can expect around to go up. >> you just mentioned when policing budgets are cut, there seems to be an increase in crime. he say more cops, less crime. with police budgets cut,

resulting in fewer officers patrolling the communities, i think we could say the areas become less safe. is that correct? >> certainly. >> in your ridings you mentioned that america streets are likely under policed. can you explain a little more of what you mean by that? >> certainly that draws on a couple of different references. one is good estimates of americas police population ratio relative to other developed nations. we had to perform the rest of the o c e on this measure. another is for the amount of crime, the cost to the level of crime. below the socially off of all of a police. on the third one is under a variety of indicators, we have a lower police per capita ratio than we did in about 2008. before the great recession. which suggests to me that,

given the rising, crime we stalled out at that point. we could be buying more safety than we currently are. okay. i assume there is a connection between something you have written, fewer cops also means more police conduct. could you explain that phenomenon? >> do you mean, misconduct? >> it says conduct. maybe misconduct. >> i would assume misconduct. all of us equal, i would expect that fewer cops means more burden on the remaining comps. there is a fixed quantity of crime. if your count means more crime goes up. the quantity of man hours. there's a strong empirical relationships between stressed burden, overwork, and the risk that a police officer will use in force. of these officers will be complained about a reported. fewer cops puts more strain. >> how could honduras help law

enforcement personnel better fight crime? if there is a way other than putting more money in? >> look, the first way is putting more money. and i hate to tell you that, representative. policing in america's highly local. congress has basically three things that can do. the federal government has three things. one is spend money, thing too is coordinate information sharing, encourage the information of expertise and best practices. think threes to fix data and data sharing. the fbi reporting is a mess. regardless of the fact that all crime reporting in america is a massive mess. and we have to talk about this later. it is a huge issue for getting things done in crime prevention specifically in hate crimes -- >> the chair now recognizes gentlewoman from ohio miss brown for five minutes. >> thank you mister chair. i would first like to start up by thanking the chairwoman for

holding this hearing in her tireless commit to advancing civil rights for the lgbtqi+ plus community. in her long and remarkable career. i would like to go on the record and say that she will be missed. the topic that brings us here today, i was heartbroken and stunned by the tragedy in colorado springs at club q. political violence and hatred targeted at the lgbtqi+ community is completely unacceptable. i want to thank the brave survivors for testifying today and for sharing their story. this important hearing ensures that the lgbtqi+ voices are being heard. that we are properly addressing the surge of anti lgbtqi+ and anti-trans hate. i would like to start off with ms. hunt. why do you think anti lgbtqi+ hate has seen such a resurgence

in the political climate in recent months? is it collected to the midterm election? is this a broader trend, or both? >> thank you for that question. it is, unfortunately, a trend we have seen over the past six years. trans people increasingly being seen as an acceptable target. it began in 2016 with the introduction of hp to, the first of the major bathroom bills in north carolina. it was the first major piece of legislation directly targeting trans people and trans peoples lives that, has kicked off a trend that has seen an increase selection of trans people, in particular, as being a acceptable target for political attacks. trying to score points and move the needle a little bit without any negative consequence. we are just seen as an

acceptable target by so many people. the dehumanizing rhetoric that comes up and fuels the wave of violence that we are seeing is inflamed by this treatment of us as an other. and acceptable target. that is a really disturbing in unsettling trend to see is part of our political landscape. >> i appreciate your candor. hope that we can all recognize how the anti lgbtqi+ is being weaponized by the extreme right for purposes of stoking fear and energizing a backlash. with that, dr. meyer, we have seen the extreme right use its most powerful tool, right-wing media, in an effort to spread the message of hate. how has right-wing media contributed to the rise of anti lgbtqi+ hate. specifically against trans people in their ability to live their authentic lives as themselves?

to tell you the truth, i do not understand why, and miss hunt just mentioned, transgender people have become such a target. we know that in most your instructions are a small minority of the people. a lot of the hay that comes this way i have to assume is an excuse, and as was mentioned here already. maybe to serve some political purposes. that seems to be and easy way to achieve, by attacking transgender people. the way that rhetoric has developed over the past few years, has been really concerning. some of the things that i find really disturbing is the way this rhetoric is talked about. they want to protect children from being sexualized.

that very notion, talking about having gay parents are talking about transgender people -- trans gendered people it is completely wrong. person having a mother and father. the purpose of this rhetoric is completely political, i think. >> thank you dr. meyer. are you aware of the extreme right targeting these anti-lgbtqi+ messages that minority communities or african american communities in particular? >> of course, as i mentioned, homophobia and transphobia are embedded in american culture in history, as his racism. the two combined create this environment where attacking lgbtqi+ people of color, especially transgender women of color, on are a huge target of hate. >> thank you. with that, i see my time has

expired. thank you mister chairman. >> the chair now recognizes the gentleman from georgia, mr. hice for five minutes. >> thank you mister chairman. if i could take to 30 seconds a point of personal privilege before i get started. this is my last for committee hearing. my congressional career. i just want to say thank you to each of my colleagues we have had a lot of spirited debates over the years. it has been an honor to be a part of this. i wish chairwoman maloney was still. here i would've wished her the best as she goes on from here. also soon to be chairman comer, i wish him the best as well as he takes the reins of this committee in the next congress. jobless each of you. it has been an honor to be here into serve with you. i think you for giving me a little time to say that. we are hearing a lot about right wing extremism and violence. obviously violence of any type

is a poison, as is left-wing violence. that which is the fuel that is thrown on the fire by left wing media. this is not a one-sided argument, it goes on both sides. he needs to be dealt with on both sides. what happened at club q was a tragedy that should never, ever, happen in the united states. i want to commend the brave action by u.s. army veteran, richard feral, for his quick actions that save the lives of who knows how many additional individuals who were in harm's way. with that said, i think it is a shame that, once again, here we are in this committee as the majority is heading out the door, this committee's responsibility to deal with federal government oversight continues to be ignored. we are dealing with things that this committee has not dealt

with in this country. inflation, green energy, border, afghanistan withdrawal. a host of other things that this committee continues to ignore. i think that is a shame. in today's hearing, it is an attempt to blame republicans for the horrendous acts of violence at the same time, many of my colleagues ignore the words and deeds of many of their own party who have fueled hate and violence. statements on antisemitism, we have major democratic leaders who, quote, tell them -- members of the trump administration, that they are not welcome anymore, anywhere. these types of comments should not be allowed either. look, the rise of hate crimes deeply concerns me. it concerns all of us.

there is no question that this is a tragedy. we need to deal with the reality is, we are all human beings, we are all created equal in the sight of god and we need to honor that. i have an article, some of you may have heard this type of comment. it is just shocking to hear this type of thing but the comments saying when, you are all trash. i hate you. i wish you harm. some of you have probably heard that. those types of comments. this comment was not made to the lgbt community. this came out last week, a comment directed to a group of christians. it is unacceptable. chairwoman out by to submit this article for the record if i could please sir. >> without objection. >> thank. you >> just down the street, last lead, some individuals were not allowed to enter a restaurant because of who they were. again, this is not the lgbtqi+

community, this is a group of christians. refused to be served in a restaurant because they were a group of christians. it is unacceptable. again, i would like to have the article submitted for the record, sir. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you. you want to talk about hey? between may and october of this year over 100, just within those short months, 100 pro-life organizations and churches were vandalized, attacked, smashed. 38 of them churches across the country, firebombed, smashed, vandalized. pro abortion graffiti. threatening messages were left. this type of stuff has got to stop on both sides. again, i would like to submit this for the record, if i could, mister chair. >> without objection, so ordered. >> we have the department of justice who has come out and

admitting that they have raised investigations against pro-life individuals and pro-life organizations, simply because they don't like it. again, what might have been suspended for the record. >> but that objection. >> by the way dozens of those churches that were vandalized, firebombed, and so forth war by the organization change revenge, who admitted who they did so. to this day, not a single arrest. we have got to deal with these issues across the board i urge my democratic colleagues to join us and not only that's coming here but with a hate that is coming against churches, for life organization, the supreme court justices for crying out loud. supporters of president trump. all of this needs to be dealt with. it is systematic and highlights a moral and spiritual problem

in this country. we need to admit that this is not a one-sided issue. it is on both sides of the aisle. with that, i thank you for indulging me, mister chairman. are you back. >> the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from michigan, in this tlaib for five minutes. >> i want to recognize chairwoman maloney. she could've had a meeting on anything. she chose this. i want to commend around. that it means so much. i want to start with the truth. i don't know if it was mr. haynes or mr. chavez he said this but it is about starting to live our truth. i want to start with my truth and the congress member here. one of the things i realized my colleague ignores is nearly 20% of all hate crimes are now motivated by lgbtqi+ bigotry in our country. we continue to see reports after reports.

the one report, even hearing in my own community is from teachers being allies, being targeted. not only at school board meetings, but just publicly, through social media. displays of different types of solidarity. targeted, just because they want to make sure that every single child that they are educating it seen and heard and that they feel safe. students and residents who continue to speak up in my community about the attempt to, so-called, make it about books and all those things is happening in my backyard in my district. . the dehumanization that happens after those hearings. please know that many of my lgbtqi+ neighbors who testify literally are targeted on social media. hey expressed through videos, twitter, and so many other outlets it is so hard because i

watched as, one by one, they testified. have they were literally just shouted that, trying to be silenced. when i hear the stories of what happened paul's it is horrific, just god awful to watch a friend and colleague die solely based on who they are mr. wolf, i want to thank you so much. it takes so much bravery to come here. i know it's going to happen when you leave. when you leave, you course some love and support for many folks that see your bravery as inspiring, you -- i know what also comes your way when you come and speak the truth here. one of the things i think mr. anderson, mr. law, mr. haynes. i think mr. anderson said, living your roof. i think that mr. haynes or

slaugh said, what are we doing to make the lgbtqi+ unsafe in this chamber? mr. wolf, your experience the awful traumatic experience at paul's, what does it really truly mean for the lgbtqi+ community in our country, and their allies? that is something that i want to talk about even more. it is not only our lgbtq neighbors but it is the folks that are standing the standing silence is not an option the community is continuing to be targeted. >> thank you so much. thank you for recognizing how hard it is to do this day end and day out a moment like policy changes a community forever. it doesn't just change the people who are there -- it doesn't just change the community that it's targeted it changes the entire community. central florida is not the same as it was june 11th of 2016.

our entire city of orlando has changed in part because we were forced to make a choice. terrorism is designed to terrorize people, that is the point. it is supposed to stare us back into the closet. it is trying to make a stop living authentically. our region, our city faced a choice in the hours after the shooting. that choice was to succumb to terrorism and hate, we would allow one man armed with an assault weapon and hundreds of arms of ammunition to shatter us. or, if we withstand more closely together. i was most inspired in the wake of polished by watching both people of the political aisle come together to say that we could be better. we can do more for lgbtq+ people in our community i was inspired by faith later standing alongside lgbtq+ officials and saying we can't always agree but we do agree on the fact that people are worthy of dignity and respect -- i'm proud of my community for

deciding that we would be a different, more inclusive, better, safer community going forward. i also think that offers a blueprint for how this country moves forward in the wake of such violence and hate i want all of my lgbtqi+ neighbors in my district and throughout the country to know, because of you i believe our communities are better and more beautiful. thank you again for your courageous testimony from many of you. you know that you always have an ally in the united states congress. >> the gentlelady yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. grothman, for five minutes. -- i'm glad that we are having a hearing here dealing with crime. my district is adjacent to the city of milwaukee, in the last three years has more than doubled the number of murders. i don't know what the

definition of hate means but, normally, if you are killing somebody you're probably hate them. i asked the blues there are people that you into a crowd or whatever. i voice felt that there were three things causing milwaukee, used to be the safest of the 25 biggest cities in this country, becoming such a dangerous city. if you look at the type of people committing the crime it is the breakdown of the family. a course we have people here that stood with black lives matter who initially was opposed to that. secondly, we have the police hatred. even more than the police defunding. this police hatred. where police have to be so careful of what they do. as a result they become passive policeman. one of the reasons why, not just in milwaukee, but around the world, around the country we see an increase in the number of murders. i think a distant third would

maybe be open borders. i notice last month, by itself, we broke the previous record of the number of what we call gotaways at the border going from 59,000 73,000. obviously people not turning themselves into border control asking for asylum. you are collecting people who are potentially dangerous. as a result we've gone, i assume some of this year, we had 212 murders. i assume some are gay, i don't know. i'm going to ask, mr. layman, and i write in each one of those three reasons for the huge increase in murders in this country? is there anything you think we can do to deal with these three problems? >> i think locally two year increase in homicide, the second thing that you mention. the increase in pacifist e among police officers. you can call it the bleep

strike -- the reality is, across a variety of measures, police are less active than the used to be. lawmakers are very forceful instructing police activity. bans on chokeholds, bans on police chases, we can get through those policies. i think the breakdown of the family is a long-standing problem -- >> could you elaborate on that? and we don't talk about enough >> the breakdown of the family has a long-standing problem? >> 40% of american children today live in a group borne out of wedlock. many children go through divorce, i don't really know how many throughout the parents live, time marriage grows river in reverend fewer children have access to the stability of a loving two parent households, regardless of the sex of the parents. that almost certainly contributes -- >> can you give us some statistics on that?

>> on which fight. which number? >> they are wonderful parents. they are wonderful people, including in this room, who have come from also to backgrounds. but i look at milwaukee, 1970 and milwaukee -- to 2022, a change in the family situation -- >> i don't know the ratios of the exact numbers of my head. i can tell you the risk for criminalities higher, christopher antisocial behavior is higher. for harm to deem individual is higher. suicidality, depression, all associated with family breakdown. i think that's accurate. again, i think it is a long-standing problem. clearly, we have had crime decline despite the breakdown of the family but it is a contributor. >> when i look at this guy in colorado springs, he sure had a very difficult background. obviously, a horrible person but, from looking at the root

causes of stuff -- given we have that this huge skyrocketing increase, how would you deal with that? can you give us some ideas on how society can get that 210 murders walk you back down to 40 or 50, which is still way too high. >> we know the tools at work, it's not that hard. and tool one is in constipation -- they think that increase in 2020 concentrating among serious urpy violent offenders. people who commit and homicide. who engage in cycles of violence, but them in prison. incapacitation is really efficient. i've alluded to this fight -- we have far fewer police officers per capita than we did before the great recession. 50 to 80,000 more police officers to get back up to capacity. i think that should be a top priority at all levels of government. >> --

,. and always bothers me when we talk about crime and people in your position when talk about more cops. i wish you talk about more the route causes in the future. but thanks. the gentleman yields back. the gentleman now recognizes himself for five minutes for questions. i have the honor of representing the city of boston along with the congresswoman pressley last month, boston's children hospital, the most renowned pediatric hospital in the country, received its fifth bomb threat in the last four months. since august of this year, the hospital has been subjected to an onslaught of line line hate in harassment, including vitriolic emails and death threats against clinicians and other staff and boston's children hospital. many of these attacks have been driven by anti lgbtqi+ social

media accounts that have viewed hate and misinformation surrounding transgender care. as detailed by hrc, the human rights campaign in its reports online, harassment last month -- harassment reports released last month, a coordinated campaign against boston children hospital is not isolated. following its review of multiple social media platforms, agency again a 5:25 different hospitals and providers across 21 states that have recently been subjected to direct online attacks following misleading, inflammatory and harassing post by anti lgbtqi+ accounts. miss robin's, can you please expand on the nature of these coordinated hate campaigns against these hospitals and other health care providers and their relationship to actual

threats, physical threats, against those individuals and institutions? >> this is a devastating reality that we are living in right now. the people that we go to to offer support to our kids are being uniquely and targeted the attacked i'm speaking specifically about teachers in most cases and providers like we talked about here. 24 different hospitals and providers across 22 states were directly attacked online following harassing inflammatory really misleading posts i think the thing to really note here is there is a direct connection hateful speech rhetoric is directly connected to relax violence. we have seen it play out time and time again. we have to interrupt the cycle. again, boston's children's hospital, these online attacks and real world threats continue to take a devastating impact on hospital staff.

not to mention the impact it has on lgbtqi+ individuals and their families. their moms and dads. there has already been extreme stress and pandemic related pressures on these hospital staff. this trend has also affected patient care and safety. miss robinson, am i correct in stating many hospitals and providers have been forced to remove online resources and websites in the wake of these attacks? >> yes, you are correct. >> hrc includes numerous examples in their report of the hateful social media posts that were involved in these harassment campaigns underscored in the report, all of the tweets in facebook post sided head remain lived as of the date of writing they have

not been removed. quote, despite all of them and being in violation of twitter and meta's policies of hateful behavior in conduct. miss robinson what additional steps do you think social media companies can take to address this online harassment. hopefully reduce the threat of real world violence against lgbtq persons and also these institutions that are trying to deliver health care to those individuals. >> it is urgent an imperative that every social media company hold themselves accountable to their own community guidelines of behavior people are being allowed to express views that are directly dangerous to our community talking about moving forward brutal attacks criminalizing our people. trying to make it seem like we are less than human. these are our real threats. the first calls on social media

companies to enact their own policies we also have to hold bad actors accountable in places like florida where we saw a 400% increase in anti lgbtq hate speech and rhetoric, it was all fueled by ten people. ten actors are doing the majority of that. we have to hold on another accountable. >> thank you, my time has expired. the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. keller, for five minutes. >> thank you, chairman. i would like to thank the witnesses for being here today. i just want to make the point that any crime against any individual is unacceptable and should not be tolerated america's a nation of law in order. as i mentioned, any form of violence and lawlessness in this country is not acceptable. those who perpetrate it must be held responsible under the full weight of the law. i am often reminded, president reagan, who i thought was a

great leader, said something i think we need to make sure you understand in this we must reject the idea that every time a law is broken society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. it is time to restore the american precept that each individual is accountable for their own actions. we need to make sure we hold people accountable when they break the law it is undeniable that crime throughout major cities arising. according to the city chiefs -- homicides and aggravated assaults are up 50%. 36% respectively compared 2019. this is an alarming trend that demands this committee's full attention. so, we need to focus on that, rather than trying to divide -- talking about when every crime is committed against, me need to defend those people. stand up for them let him know

that we love them we are not going to tolerate them being treated poorly. we should not be blaming one another, we should be blaming the people that commit these crimes. we should not politicize any specific acts of evil. we need to be looking at this holistically as an american crime crisis mister layman, i heard you testimony. you had mentioned that some of the crimes that were committed that were discussed were committed by people who had committed crimes previously. and i'm saying that correctly, your testimony? >> just to draw out the figures that are available in my testimony, among individuals who were arrested for hate crimes in the exit from 2019 to 2021, 52% had a prior conviction. 32% had a fire felony conviction 36% had an open, pending case 20% or rear rested

within six months of release. large, significant proportion of hate crime preventers, similar to the non hate crime offending population, have prior criminal offenses -- >> it is not just a matter, i guess my question would be it's not just a matter of making sure that our law enforcement is sufficient and has the tools they need to keep your community safe, but then i look at districts attorneys, i will look at philadelphia, my home state of pennsylvania, we have district attorney krasner who does not prosecute some of these crimes. what impact does that have when you have a police officer enforcing the law and arresting the people who are perpetrating crime against citizens and then the district attorney does not prosecute them. they don't have a fish in -- what is that due to security in america? >> i can talk specifically

about hate crimes. there's frequently an overlap between hate crime and petty crimes in many jurisdiction if i spray-paints lost a, i could be convicted of a crime in charge of that prosecutors are not committed to charging a petty offense -- i suspect that downstream of that behavior is more serious aggregated offending that is indicative of the risks associated with failing to charge petty crime there's a lot of variation in what prosecutors do some of the progressive prosecutors in new york city have worked really hard to making prosecution petty crime a major priority in applaud them. people who commits more crimes are often move on to commit larger crimes. you want to commit them while they're small. >> take care the little things in the bigger think away people know they will be held accountable for what they do, they are responsible f their actions, we won't see people doing things that harm other individuals that, i think we

need to be united in that message. i think we need to stop making excuses i heard t the family and everything else. life is parents were divorced when i was four years old, i want to live in the grandmother. we never use being poor, we never use our family situation as an excuse. we lived in america! in america, it doesn't matter who you are, where you live, or who you love, it matters that you can entertain great things we need to go back to that quote from president reagan that i mentioned and we need to restore that american priest that the people are accountable for their own actions. we need to give law enforcement the tools they need. we need to hold people to break the law accountable. i don't to see anybody get hurt in america. if somebody is hurt, the person that did it needs to be held accountable so it doesn't happen again. thank you. i yield back. >> the gentleman yields back, the chair now recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, miss pressley, for five minutes.

-- okay, we will try to pick up with her later. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from union, miss kelly, for five minutes. >> thank you, mister chair. i just wanted to thank chairwoman maloney for all the work for this committee and wish her the best in her next chapter. i also wanted to thank ranking member hice for all the work that he has done, as he moves on to his next chapter. it is interesting being here today when, yesterday, we were celebrating because of the legislation that was passed. now we are here today talking about a topic that is so very sad. we are talking about it on the day were 20 something people were killed in newtown, you know?

around the issue of guns i do agree with my colleague from with johnson when we talk about crime, we need to get to the root causes i'm a big gun violence prevention person. i am for the legislation we can talk about the legislation but unless we do something around prevention, investing in all kinds of communities and all kinds of people and offensive we are going to find ourselves in the same place i want to also think all the witnesses lgbtqi+ people have historically experienced health largely rooted in lawful discrimination against them in medical settings and employment man who have sex with men continue to face discrimination in health care settings because of the stigma that has persisted for four decades this

stigma is damaging and humiliating. according to a 2021 study by the kaiser family foundation, lgbtqi+ people are more likely to report negative experiences with health care providers, including being blamed for their ole illnesses and negative health outcomes analysis for the center of reckon progress show the almost 10% of lgbtq people report being turned away from health care facilities because a provider discomfort dr. meyer, can you explain how discrimination against lgbtqi+ people in a health care setting leads to long term negative health outcomes? >> thank you, yes. as i presented in my written testimony, there has been research on the effect of prejudice and discrimination to lgbtqi+ people recognized by both administrations the health

and human services the account misses not just me representing my research. what we have seen, also, before i get to the effect of the types of attitudes -- violence disrespect bullying youth is a very common experience for lgbtqi+ people if i may, there has been an equivalency made here, in this hearing, between attacks on lgbtqi+ people and, of course, the horrible attacks on christians, other people who are attacked violently. but they are not equivalent. not to say that one is better or worse than the other, but when you are attacking a group of people in a sense that is embedding and reverberating hatred and stigma that has been

going on for decades, and are part, as you said, of the american system you are creating a damage, above and beyond, the attack that the person experiences. it brings back attacks that they have experience throughout their whole lives. being christian is not a stigmatize position in american society it is very valued. it's a good thing. to be attacked for being christians is a different nature, again, not a dime supporting any attack or any discrimination. what we have seen on these types of attacks, the type of discrimination, these types of bullying, they all have impacts on lgbtqi+ people, especially in mental health, depression, anxiety, and the very high rates of suicide ideation and

suicide attempts that we see both in older generations and in younger people who are -- >> my time is running out. also receive -- worse for people of color. >> of course. as i mentioned my testimony. >> my time is running out. i just want to say to mr. wolf it is so wonderful to see you again. i just appreciate your advocacy so much. -- and i have a niece that belongs to the community. i'm just so glad that there is advocates out there. i'm a big ally. -- will always be here when you need it. thank you. >> >> gentleman from new mexico is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you for surveying. and i wish you the best of luck. this, is of course, our last

meeting together. i just thank you for your leadership. i also think you for hosting this hearing. my deepest condolences to the first panel that was here in regards to the recent shooting in florida. the targeted attacks remind us of a cruel reality is that we live in a nation that now faces threats from evil people. and this is -- it happens all the time. while i appreciate what dr. meyer just said, i disagree because i think any attack on any group of people regardless of its religious group. i would point out of there have been over 280 murderous against our law enforcement family. and how does that differ from for instance a religious group or an lgbtq group. i just doing any kind of evil attack on any group of people should be stopped in this

country. there is no room for it. sadly, it's happening both sides of the aisle. i've heard and we all have over the last hour or so that it's right-wing, right wing. you know what? it's a left-wing to. it's inability for people in power to not stand up for what is right. for our moral values and for what people of this country expect us to do. in all sight an example. it comes from both sides. after the shooting in colorado. speaker pelosi and i quote right-wing extremist target transgender americans most fundamental rights and freedoms. whether spouting dangerous rhetoric from cable news desks or openly bullying schoolchildren from the halls of power. maga republicans are cruelly undermining the safety and well-being of our transgender community. end of quote. that's not based on science. that's based on pushing the american people further apart and making everything more divisive. because everyone on this side

of the aisle who spoke today has truly said they hate to see this crime. against any group of people in this country. when we offered condolences to those who have suffered through the tragedy, we were faced with searing criticism. the violent rhetoric translating into violent actions is not merely a concept, it is a real reality. and sadly, we can fill this entire committee hearing for the rest of the year into 1:18 at the new committee. we could have hearings against violence against judges, clubs, abortion clinics, hospitals, schools, grocery stores, business owners, laws, law enforcement. because we've allowed the media and social media platforms to drive the narrative instead of having real conversations right here in these committee rooms where we can come together and find solutions that protect all americans. every single american deserves

to live in a country where they can live in a society that affords them every level of security. we cannot accept the violence as an approach to solving problems that we face each and every day. or demonize each other as an excuse not to engage with those that we disagree with. i urge my colleagues. let's stop shifting the blame and instead work together to build an america that really lives up to his promises of life liberty in the pursuit of happiness for everybody. i want to just follow up on a question that came up. miss -- brought something up and i want to ask mr. lehman. she said we need to notice who the real perpetrators are or predators are on hold them accountable. are we holding these predators accountable when the crimes of hate are committed against any group of people? >> abstractly, yes. not in every case. there is a wide variety of

things that characterizes hate crimes. i certainly think that we could vote -- devote more time in competency towards the swift prosecutors -- >> i think this hearing is important. i think at the end of the day, when we have to do. lets everybody identify as americans first. then we can figure out the way to solve these problems. but if we don't come together in a transparent manner and work to protect everybody. including law enforcement. the men and women that stand and of -- those are willing to stand up for our values. then we are in more trouble than i thought and with that, mrs. chairman, i yield back. >> the lady yields back. the gentlelady from the district of columbia is recognized. >> thank, you madam chair, for this important hearing. let me know that at the beginning that the rights of lgbtq --

district of columbia residents are particularly address with house republicans in the majority. republicans have consistently tried to overturn laws protecting this community. the lgbtq i community. including trying to overturn marriage equality laws. blocking d.c.'s domestic partner law. and allowing religiously affiliated schools in d.c. to discriminate against lgbt students. statehood, of course is the only way to ensure d.c.'s laws are not undemocratically overturned. i'm proud that democrats -- we have advanced critical legislation to protect and expand the rights of the lgbt

community go. -- to live their own authentic lives. that's why mr. robinson, the house passed the equality act last year. to codify protections for the lgbt community against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. i was an original co-sponsor of the equality act. how would the equality act in shrine protections for this community, for lgbtq i plus individuals across the country? >> we right now, lgbtq+ people are living with a patchwork of protections across the country. there are 29 states that do not have known discrimination against our community laws. and so yes, we identify as full americans. but america is not giving us all of the rights that we

deserve. passing that law and d.c. was critical. as a resident, it was meaningful for me and for my family. it's essential that we passed these types of laws across the country into the federal equality act into place. >> thank you, miss robinson. mr. wolf, what does the equality act mean for the lgbtq i plus community in communities across the country? >> thank you for the question. as kelly said, it's important because we are not afforded the same nondiscrimination protections that other groups are. i think this is a person in the state of florida. one of the things that we've written inward for equality in the states lgbtq civil rights organization. one of the things we are working on for years is implementing comprehensive not as combination protections for lgbtq people in our state. what does that mean? it means protecting lgbtq people from being denied housing for instance because we have a boyfriends, not a girlfriend. it means protecting lgbtq

people from being fired for their jobs because they have a picture of their spouse on the desk. the equality act would in ways that florida has refused to do in other states refused to do would apply those nondiscrimination protections across the country. all expand just a little bit to say. that goes beyond the lgbtq community. that there are other marginalized communities that are further protected under the equality act and it goes beyond just housing public accommodations and workforce. it goes into credit and other things like that. essentially saying that lgbtq people like every other american deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. and we deserve to be protected from discrimination. >> thank you, mr. wolf. miss peacock. entering this committee -- report of the lgbtqi+ data include -- inclusion act. to the full house. which passed historic

legislation into commemoration of pride month. -- i was an original co-sponsor of that bill. this bill would expand the collection of voluntary self disclose information. regarding sexual orientation and help ensure policy makers can better understand the specific challenges that this community faces. miss peacock, or kind of specific challenges do the lgbtqi+ people who you serve in your community face in the areas of health care housing in education. >> thank you for asking that question. we see double, sometimes triple the rate of suicide risk, school truancy, lack of care. i had 1:13-year-old show of utter center who was living on the streets because it was safer than home. about a third of our young

people experience homelessness. it's so important to track data so that one, we know how well we're doing for these young people. and two, so we can prevent the things that they're facing. >> thank you. >> the gentlelady's time is expired. mr. cloud is now recognized. mr. cloud. >> thank you, madam chair. thank you miss -- i forcing a line. i know you're -- i was curious to get your thoughts just really on -- in the context of this conversation. what the role of the traditional nuclear family is in society today. what your take is on that. >> thank you for having. mia recently had a surgery and so i'm not able to fly. so i really appreciate the opportunity to testify virtually. what i can tell you is that research shows that young

people who are connected with trusted adults, whether it be parents, in fact just one trusted adult reduces the risk of suicide by five times. so the reality is family structure is important and those of us in this community know that we have family structures. in which our children are very taken care of, have great health outcomes, similar to others who might be indifferent structured households. the truth is anyone can be a trusted adult and impact the outcomes for young people and so that's why we're constantly educated, educating the community, be the trusted adult for the young person. no matter where you are, you can be a teacher, you could be a neighbor. if that young person trustee, they can come to you with a difficult problem they're facing and that will reduce their risks. >> do you believe that parents have a right to be involved in these sort of discussions with their children in school?

>> so we have i think about 100 parents who participate in our program to support their young people. and so inside out, we believe that if parents want to show up as a partner in the success of their young people, they're going to have healthier outcomes. so for example, -- >> do parents have a right to know? is my question? >> do parents have a right to know what? i don't understand what you're asking. >> for example, if there is a child or a teenager in school who's questioning their identity or those sorts of things. do parents have a right to know and be involved in that discussion. >> i'd say it depends, again, we have young people who show up at our space who are leaving unsafe, abuse of homes. in that case, we have to do everything we can to make sure that young person is safe and protected. we have --

we are constantly filing reports of abuse in neglect because of parents -- >> i understand -- it's easier to flicking the question a little bit. i understand cases of abuse. there is laws to protect abuse. schools actually are legally obligated to report cases of abuse. same for churches and the like. do parents have a right -- should they be informed about what's going on? do they have a right to know what's going on in their kids lives? >> i think, again, those of us who are protecting and supporting young people are there and trusted with the information of the things that they are doing dealing with. in terms of parents rights to know at schools, here in colorado, parents don't have the right. if a young person is questioning their gender or their sexuality, there are laws in place that say that they have the right to process that with their trusted counselor. and so forth. >> you do a significant of your

work with kids even starting at age 13. what would be the age of consent there in your mind? >> in our community, the age of consent to mental health therapy is 12 years old. we have laws that enable young people to connect with trusted adults who can support them. that is just so important. it prevents suicide. and so we serve young people at 13 because we know they come to us and we can prevent negative health outcomes for them. >> lately, we've seen a lot of people in the news coming out detransitioning. could you speak to that phenomenon and what's that person going through. did they get it wrong? where they're going through a period? is it a -- could you speak to that? >> i can't really speak to an individual's personal experience.

somebody's gender is just a really personal experience. i can't speak to you. i've been in this work for a long time. i know a lot of trans folks close friends. family members. i've never heard a case of anyone transitioning. so i honestly don't think it's a -- >> there is a number of cases in the news right now. where this is happening. the concern for parents have is we've all had awkward teen years. we are weave question things an existence and a lot of things. and the question is kids who are maybe making a permanent decision even without the input of their parents and making irreversible decisions. there are some who have talked about the cannot kids anymore they wish they could and the like. i'm curious how we would work to protect kids. i wish we had more time. >> gentleman's time is expired. >> because i think this is an important issue to get into. thank you for being here.

>> the gentleman from maryland, mr. raskin, is recognized for five minutes. >> madam chair, thank you. i want to start just by saluting you for your extraordinary and energetic leadership of this committee. and your historic leadership as the first woman ever to be the chair of the oversight reform committee. we will continue on all of your major priorities with respect to the census, the post office with, fairness in the immigration process. and of course, the equal rights amendment which we know is so close to your heart. thank you for everything you've done for us. i want to thank the witnesses for coming and testifying about anti lgbtq violence and incitement. i offer my condolences for the losses all of you suffered at the club q shooting last month. we're keeping you all close to ourts.

when you look at the hostile treatment of minorities in america who are in any country on earth. you find a spectrum of negative actions that can begin just with vilification, demonization stereotyping. then it can become statutory discrimination and stigmatization against a minority. it can culminate in violence and we've seen the most horrific episodes of that kind of violence. some of them were taking place in different parts of the world today. in recent years, certain state legislatures have sought to turn government into an instrument of hostility. two demonization of lgbtq people. more than 340 pieces of anti-lgbtq bills for

introducing legislations across america this year. triple the number that were introduced four years ago. 48 state bills that aim to limit or ban discussion of the existence of gay people have been considered in 21 states. mr. wolf, as lgbtq civil rights advocate florida, could you speak to us about how florida's don't say gay law affects you and what is the effect of these types of bills that seek to promote censorship or invisibility of entire communities? >> thank you for the question. i want to start by acknowledging that republicans in florida promised us that the bill was narrow in scope. that it was only focused on preventing young children from being sexualized or learning about sexual topics. and although we told him that the language of the bill was nothing like that and that it had far broader region they were saying, they assured us that there would be nothing to worry about. and so as a result, what have

we seen. we've seen books being banned without speed cue characters across the state. we've seen teachers being told to hide their family photos in their desks. we've seen school districts like miami-dade county refusing to recognize lgbtq history month for instance. think that might violate the don't say gay or trans law. those are just some of the impacts. they're weighing most heavily on lgbtq families who fought really hard to see their loved ones recognized and respected. it's weighing on teachers who are fleeing the profession. we have over 9000 teacher vacancies in florida in part because they've been undergoing character assess the nation over the last couple years. finally, it's weighing was heavily on lgbtq young people. the trevor project tells us that almost two thirds of trains and people are experiencing poor mental health outcomes because of policies like house bill 15 57 in florida. in short, the debate over the

humanity of lgbtq people is making life harder analysts say four people especially in the state of florida. >> thank you for that. comprehensive an alarming answer. miss -- how do you think that many references to lgbtq people in the classroom and school curriculum affects lgbtq youth? >> again, this is a situation where we know that when you build an inclusive classroom you have young folks who are more engaged more likely to show up at school. and so the best thing that we can do is prevent negative outcomes by creating an inclusive classroom. an inclusive church. an inclusive home. that is hands down research shows the very best thing we can do for young people. >> miss hunt, how do you extreme laws like alabama's law

affects the health and safety of lgbtq youth? this is the one that -- we've discussed it but how does it affect the mental and emotional health of the kids in the classroom? >> when children are told that they're not part of society. that they don't have a role or a place in any part of their lives. whether it is being represented in classroom. participating in school activities. for those receiving health care. whether it is just being part of their communities as a whole. it teaches them that they don't belong. that they are lesser than and that they are not as worthy as their classmates and as their peers. and that's not the message that we should ever be teaching two young children anywhere in this country. >> thank you very much. i yield back madam chair. >> gentleman's time is expired. thank you. we will now hear from the gentleman from florida, mr. donald, see you are now recognized for five minutes. >> thank, you madam chair. madam chair, it is actually

been a pleasure to share with you. i know we have had disagreements in this committee. but i think what the american people probably don't know is that we've also had a very cordial conversations. whether it's in the committee room itself or in the chamber of the house chamber or in the hallways. and so with whatever the next steps are in your life, good luck, god bless and i know that this place will miss you. >> we please were able to honor all of your requests for hearings. >> i appreciate that as well. thank you so much. madam chair, i seem to be slotted in this hearing. kind of an appropriate time. obviously, florida's been a topic of conversation. since i am the current congressional member from florida, i also served four years in florida's legislation. i figure i'm someone an expert on florida law and practices. when it comes to the oversight committee. a couple of things. one, my first legislative stetson, i was the author of one of those bills that

actually allow for community input with respect to material being in the classrooms. books that are being purchased by school districts. house bill 99, i am the author of that legislation which was signed by then governor rick scott. that legislation allowed for parents and taxpayers in the county to be able to bring objections to the local school board for books that were purchased in the classroom. for students to view. i understand at the time that critics equality florida mother said that it was going to allow for banning of material. but the truth is. the merits of the bill, the actual process of the bill because i was there when the rulemaking was done is that there is a systematic approach for every district to take in public comment about material that is going to be purchased but the school district. and in the school district is the one that goes through the purchasing decisions of said material. i guess my question for the penalties do you think it is

appropriate for the taxpayers in accounting of the parents in the county to actually be at the table when materials are being purchased by the school district using taxpayer money? mr. wolf, also with you. we can go down the list. >> sure, equality florida stance my stance is always been that community involvement in education makes education better for young people. it's important that the entire community is engaged in we're talking about what books we want on shelves, what things we want to be learning in the classroom. the unfortunate part is that that's not happening in the state of florida. oh give you an example. palm beach county schools, as a result of the passage of hp 15 57 went around the community review process and universally banned by decree of the superintendent a whole host of books that have characters in them. there were written by black authors. and the reason given was that it might be in violation of hp 15 57. >> real quick one of that. those the superintendent have

the authority -- hired by the school district, school district is the body that spends taxpayer money is responsible for dispensing education. is it the responsibility that superintendent to actually examine material that should be in the front of children? doesn't the have the responsibility to examine material and make the determination whether it is suitable for a child let's say who's eight years old or ten years old? >> i would argue that you just contradicted yourself. >> and saying that it's written also has that ability. >> it can't be either the superintendent does it by decree or the community gets input. >> i would argue that the superintendents to a lot of things by decree. not just in florida but across the country. but nine 89, the bill that i sponsored, was for material it's purchased before it comes into the school district. once material is in the school district, yes, the superintendent and his or her assigned can go through and systematically decide what material is allowed in the classroom or not. this is the one thing i don't

like about the commercial hearing. there goes five minutes and there's so much we could've gotten into. one of the reasons i'm sponsoring changes to house rules. that some of the story for another day. i do want to come quick to the essence of the hearing. the violence that has been exhibited against people from the lgbtq community is horrendous. and it is obscene. and it should not be tolerated. we were actually in a somewhat similar hearing yesterday on a somewhat similar topic. when it comes to violence, my thought process is do not change. we cannot tolerate any of that. at the same time, the thing that we also have to be cognizant of is how we label the perpetrator of said violence. because the narrative in our politics is that violence against black people or violence against lgbtq people is somehow coming from white ring extremists that is dialogue that is having this hearing today. mister, wolf i remember when the polls shouldn't happen. i wasn't legislature the time. i remember, it was horrific

then. the shooter in question is somebody who actually assigned themselves,'s subscribes to ices. it's an ices -- theoretical, the illogical leanings. not a right winger. not a left-wing or. somebody that has views that are abhorrent here in the united states. i think of run of this gets the things, we have to make sure -- i know i'm over my time, i apologize. you're good. i think that what we have to make sure is that we stand up against hate and violence. but we do not at the same time cast aspersions on our fellow americans. until we actually understand the motives of the individual assailant and deal with it properly. with that, i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. gentleman from texas, mr. fallon, is now recognized. >> thank you, madam chair. i wanted to speak from the heart and be rather just authentic. listen. i was listening to testimony earlier. what we always fear at the

child, you fear the bogeyman, the six from late in the closet, all these illogical fears that we have. unfortunately, there are folks that are in the wrong place in the wrong time with evil that lurks. mr. wolf, you are one of those folks. being there, it's horrific. as my colleague said. my heart gout to you. what i want to avoid is to place blame on people that have a different political philosophy. because the vast majority of them talking nine point 999. just keep going. of americans n't want to harm anyone and don't harm anyone. to place blame on and ideology because i think you said earlier, right wing extremism. i caught that, i'm sorry we're you fear, mr. , left wingings. extremism? >> i wouldsay that based on the department of homeland security's recent report that

said domestic terror threats are people may result in violence. >> so you -- you don't fear left-wing extremism? >> do you have an ele of a left-wing extremist engaging in anti -- >> geno james t hoskinson? >> i don't. >> do you know of any historical incidents where there are multiple members of congress murdered or assassinated? are you or we're aware -- >> yes. >> i'm not aware of any multiple instances like that. i don't think it has happened. fortunately in history. we go down a very dark tunnel if that did occur. it almost did occur. a few years back, james t hutchinson shot steve scalise who's now the majority leader -- soon will be the majority leader in the next congress. almost killed him. was asked do you know james t hutchinson's political affiliation? heas a bernie sanders accolade. he was a big fan of bernie sanders. none of us blame bernie sanders

for that shooting. because he didn't do it. and there was rhetoric on that side that could encourage very unstable people but it's about your dangerous inherently. and the thing is if steve scalise wasn't there. because he had a detail because he was a believer minority over the -- he had a security deal that ended up eliminating that threat and killing the man. had he not been there, you probably looking at 15 to 20 republican was a congress who had been murdered. he even asked, they were at a basal practice in the morning. he even asked where you are republicans? when they said yes, that's when the rifle came out and that's when the gun came out. the only person responsible for that shooting with n. no one else. that's what -- i'm trying to be very careful about that because would you agree that this is something that a member of congress should saytalking about folks that we disagree with? there were several quotes -- what happens when you go onto multiple -- would you agree with this? if a republican said we gotta

stay oe street and we've got to get more active and we've got to get more confrontational. we've got to make sure that they know we mean business. do you find that incendiary? >> if we're talking about peacefully protesting injustice. >> confrontational. getting in their face. there needs to be unrest in the streets. you think that could be incendiary? >> i don't know the context of what you're talking about. >> that was ariana presently -- democratic members of congress that. i don't want people to get in somebody's face and get confrontational. they can certainly disagree. we can disagree similarly. the pulse nightclub shooting was that perpetrated by a right-wing extremist? >> the paul's niqab shooting was perpetrated by a man who pledged allegiance to oasis. >> so the answer that which will be. no >> i don't know what his -- >> i don't see as many ices members that are terrorists and also gop voters. in fact, i would venture got a

doesn't exist on the planet. >> to clarify, it didn't say gop voters. >> he said right wing extremists. we would classify the evil individual that murdered 49 and wounded 53 and probably gives you nightmares for the rest of your life, it was not a right-wing extremist. >> it's not a question? >> yes. >> i would say this hearing is about the structural and systemic issues that are escalating and lgbtq violence. >> we gotta be careful about our language. because we don't point fingers that anybody other than the people that are actually perpetrating this evil in this criminal violence. we have a method of redress in this country where we're very free to do so. and that's why i will always condemn all political violence because there is no need for it because we do have the right to protest. i am very sorry about what you in those other victims went through. it's horrific. i'm praying for you. >> gentleman's time is expired. the gentlewoman from missouri, miss bush, is now recognized for five minut

michelle bush. >> yes, st. louis and i thank you manager for giving this important hearing. let me say to the witnesses, thank you for your testimony. thank you for staying and a sorry had to listen to the white supremacy rays raised its ugly head. throughout this hearing. but we're here to fight it and sot wanna make sure you the rise of hate in -- >> madam chair -- >> follows a surge of anti lgbtq plus legislation. driven by republican state lawmakers. including in my home state of missouri. the human rights campaign has found that republican state legislatures have introduced and supported over 300 -- 340 anti we are, and or trans bills in the latest legislative session. and 25 extreme discriminatory bills have already been signed into law. across this country. according to -- in 2020, the missouri state house introduced 23 pieces of

anti-lgbt plus legislation. they've repeatedly, absolutely disgusting, filed library book bands, bands on doctor recommended care. student organization bans and sports fans. miss robinson, could you tell us more about the draconian measures, state republicans have advanced the target the health, the safety in the rights of our lgbtq plus community? >> it's a crisis that we're experiencing. we are trying to simply be able to live freely, safely and holy as our true selves in every aspect of life and what we see is continued legislative attacks paired with extremist rhetoric. when some of these bills are moving forward, whether or not they're inactive has a devastating impact on our community. looking at florida again, as they don't say gay or trans bill was moving and say legislature, we saw it paired with unintentional social media campaign that resulted in a

400% increase in and i lgbtq+ hate and slurs happening online. the majority of it was perpetuated by ten bad actors. this is the stuff that we have to make sure that were interrupting in ending if this is what's creating a dangerous environment for children, for kids and for families. >> thank you. hate drives these republican s. which in turn drive dangerous hate and violence towards or lgbtq plus community. in missouri, my state, we have seen multiple hatred and murders of our transit blinks in recent years. as part of missouri's republicans obsessive attack on trans and gay rights, they introduced legislation that would have criminalize parents and health services for providing care approved by the american academy of pediatrics. and other leading organizations. the even sought to turn bills into ballot initiatives to drum up further hate then have run

for office on platforms grounded entail to bt q plus hate. dr. meyer, what is the connection between a republican crusade to target the lgbtq+ community and the surge of hateful anti lgbtq+ rhetoric online? >> thank you. i think that this rhetoric fuels as i said before what is already underlying american culture and history. to fan this hateful messages just encourages back ad actors. i agree with what was said here. there are bad actors. but we also have to pay attention to the environment in which we live and the kind of environment either inhibits or encourages hateful acts. so thank you. >> thank you. miss hunt, let me turn to you.

how is america's transgender community disproportionately harmed by the extremism and the violence, the committee is examining today. particularly speaking about black and brown transgender women? >> one thing that we see repeatedly in the studies that we've done on the trans population is that trans people are about on average 3 to 4 times as likely to experience almost any negative outcome that can expect in our society. be that unemployment, direct violence, negative experiences with the police. homelessness, discrimination in health care. anything along those lines. it tends to head trans people at 3 to 5 times as high as the national -- part of me 3 to 5 times as much as the national average. and what we see consistently through all of these numbers is that trans people of color particularly black trans women and indigenous trans women

experience 3 to 5 times as high a negative result -- negative outcomes on all of those factors. >> thank you. the rise of anti cuellar and or trans extremism is a danger to our country our nation and. we must as swiftly and urgently to eliminated. thank you and i yield back. >> genovese time is expired. the gentleman -- ranking member from kentucky is now recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. i'm not even gonna comment on what miss bush said. but i'll say this. crime is gonna be a top priority for the republicans. the -- on this committee in the next congress. and perhaps mitch bush can come give us some pointers on how she's reduce crime in st. louis. since she's been in congress and put our ideas are to further reduce crime in st. louis. st. louis has where the crime rates in america.

so maybe she can come tell us how to secure the border. and give her expertise on crime moving forward because that's what the issue is in america. we have a crime rate that's at a control and we have to do better in america. mr. lee, vineyard has one to make the case that hate crime offenders are not specialists. these criminals often have prior criminal offenses. can you explain how our current justice system is set up to handle biased based crimes? >> can you just clarify what specific -- abstractly, how bias create -- how responding to them currently? >> the law by a space crime or hate crime varies across jurisdiction, across the state. you'll observe for example there is a market increase in offenses against french under people reported the fbi since 2012. a lot of that just because prior to that, hate crime laws in the night states not incorporate transgender people. they still don't and some states.

in most cases a bias motivated defense is -- hate crimes are enhancements to other offensive. they're charging enhancements. if i shoot somebody, i would get one sentence and if i shoot them in a way that is motivated by provably motivated by my beliefs about them or their membership in a protected class, there can be higher sentence associated with it. does that answer the question? >> so let me ask you this question. the club q shooter had been previously arrested for making violent threats against their mother which ended in a standoff with the law enforcement. pretty serious. the case was dismissed due to the family's refusal to cooperate. you stated in your testimony that had prosecutor succeeded in soliciting the cooperation. five people might be alive today. how essential is it that prosecutors remain strong on

crime and see these creases through? >> absolutely. prosecuting hate crimes is challenging. that component that i referred to earlier proving that somebody tobias motivation is hard. it's actually gotten easier in the absence of metoo history will write down their thoughts so much more. it's still very challenging. best practices are not widely understood. so i think it's important rticularly when prices that prosecutor silicate substantial resources to clearing the case. they're often abysmal clearance rates on hate crime. for simple, new york city, the bronx cleared fewer than 15% of hate crimes refer to it. it's a real challenge that we need to put more effort into it. >> this is obviously something madam chair i appreciate the hearing because crime is out of control against everyone. the lgbtq community, the jewish community, we've seen crime increases historically black colleges in universities.

christian groups. we need to do better. this should be a topic of priority for the next congress. certainly we need to look at the prosecutors because we have especially in the speaker's home city of san francisco, prosecutors just for recall. i don't think anyone can classify san francisco as a bastion of conservative voters. he was recalled for not prosecuting. and i think that people in america want prosecutors to do their job in hold criminals accountable, keep him off the streets. this is going to be a priority. we certainly want to focus on securing the border. we believe that's a problem when you look at the fentanyl and drug overdoses in america. we certainly want to fund our law enforcement. obviou they're always gonna be bad actors in law enforcement as in every other profession. they need to be held accountable. we have to take crime seriously

because that is the top issue. one of the top issues among the voters. especially in the last midterm election. madam chair i, look forward to working with this committee. addressing the issue of crime in the next congress. and i yield back. >> the gentlelady from massachusetts, miss pressley, is now recognized for five minutes. >> thank, you madam chair. earlier today, we heard from survivors of the club q nightclub shooting in colorado springs and the pulse nightclub shooting in florida. i certainly look forward to a day where people do not have to relive their trauma in order to compel action. but i am grateful for the survivors who spoke today, thank you for turning the deep pain and trauma you've experienced into purpose.

hearing his accounts today was heartbreaking and we know that your lives have been changed forever. in response to this tragedy, the fact that you've come here, displaying great dignity and poise in the midst of it all certainly makes this institution better. and we thank you. in stark contrast, we have republicans and state legislatures across this country who continue to introduce and passed legislation undermining the rights of lgbtq people. despite clear evidence that these tactics caused violence and loss of life. certainly here in congress, we don't need to be reminded that hate speech leads to hateful violence. january six was certainly evidence of that. now, and my congressional district, health care providers have experienced threats and attacks that have disrupted their provisional medical care to the lgbtq community, who are already disproportionately facing barriers in accessing health care.

dr. meyer, how do lgbtq+ individuals disproportionately experience health inequities? >> thank you. i think the challenge for lgbtq people in seeking health care is that providers are not qualified enough or not knowledgeable enough. and this is particularly true for transgender individuals across the country. we report that, when they go to see a provider, often they're the ones who have to teach the provider about transgender care and give them resources to help them help the patient. i think that the other side of it is that lgbtq people also experience greater mental and physical health problems resulting from prejudice and discrimination. and therefore, need those services even more so.

>> thank you, doctor meyer. and what we have seen is a policy violence in nearly half of the states in our country, which i've introduced 43 bills this year alone that would only deepen those an equities, particularly for transgender people, by restricting access to care including for states that even acted partial or total bans. and they have blocked access to this important care nationally. why is this so vital for transgender people? >> thank you for shedding light on that. so, one of the things we see most often in trans peoples lives is a very high experience of negative mental health outcomes. people will have extremely high levels of severe depression, suicidal ideation. there are a lot of numbers that are floated around in social

media spaces for years. sourced back to some of the surveys that we did ten, seven and 14 years ago, specifically on these subjects. one of the things that we found in subsequent studies done by several organizations, including the trevor project, is that just providing access to transition related medical care reduces the significant negative mental health -- part of me, significant mental health outcomes for transgender youth by nearly two thirds. when we have a treatment that is just that effective in improving peoples lives, it is fundamental that we need to make sure that everybody who needs that care is able to access it. this is something a that can improve and is fully necessary for transgender people to be in society. >> thank you. absolutely, transgender people deserve to receive lifesaving cheddar firming health care and our officials should be able to provide without fear of being attacked. last, month i joined colleagues of sending a letter to the department of justice regarding

olent anti-trans threats that have been made by providers of gender affirming care and the ways that online platforms are fueling this violence. i just want to close with mr. wolf, i believe it is important to center survivors and our discussion here. let me close with you. how have these threats impacted you and your fellow survivors personally? >> thank you. first of all, it breaks my heart because it has resulted in further violence. it's really hard to have gone through something like pulse and have a desire to make the world a better place and to ensure that no community ever goes through it again, and that to turn around and see it recur. not just in colorado springs, but really around the country. i can say that it's been a very challenging time for people in orlando. it's a challenging time for survivors of violence against lgbtq people. and i also am grateful for this committee, i'm grateful for this hearing that we are shining a light on what i think is an urgent crisis in the country. >> the gentlelady's time has

expired. now the gentlewoman from california, this porter, is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much. i want to start by acknowledging with gratitude everything that chair maloney has done for oversight. including, importantly, lifting a places of americans. whose needs, it has concerns, was lives, whose rights are sometimes not recognized. she has long been a champion for doing that for women. but seeing her do that for americans across the country and across the demographics has meant a lot to me personally. i just wanted to take a few minutes, a few seconds, to say thank you very, much chair maloney, he will be greatly missed. i will continue to admire and be inspired by you as i work on oversight in the coming years. i want to start with miss robinson, if i could. your organization recently released a report analyzing the 500 most viewed, most influential tweets that

identify lgbtq people as, so-called, groomers. that groomer narrative is an age-old lie to position lgbtq+ people as a threat to kids, what it does is denied him access to public spaces and stokes fear and could even stop violence. miss robinson, according to its own hateful content policy, this twitter allow posts calling lgbtq people groomers? >> no. i mean, twitter along with facebook and many others have community guidelines. it's been holding users accountable to those guidelines and acknowledging, that when we ease phrases and words like groomers and pedophiles to describe people, individuals in our communities that are mothers, that our fathers and teachers, doctors, it is dangerous. and it's got one purpose, it is to dehumanize us and make it

feel like we are not a part of this american society. it has real life consequences. we are calling on social media companies to uphold the community standards and we're also calling on any american that is seeing this play out too old ourselves and our community members accountable. we wouldn't accept us and our, families we wouldn't accept a center schools, there's no reason to accept it online. >> i believe you're absolutely right. it's not this allocation of groomer and pedophile, it is alleging that a person's criminal somehow. and engaged in criminal acts merely because of their identity. their sexual orientation, their gender identity. this is clearly prohibited under twitter's content. yet you found hundreds of these posts on the platform. your team filed complaints about these posts, correct? >> yes. >> how often did twitter act to take down these posts, which violated its own content policy? >> very rarely. >> from our calculation, it

looks like about 99% of your complaints, basically, acted on one or two of the hundred plus complaint you filed. instead of taking that down, twitter elevated them. allowing them to reach an approximate 72 million users. this is not just about what happens online. what happens online translates into real harms in peoples lives. miss pocock, you provide services to a community that experienced a devastating lgbtq attack. could you provide some examples of the link between speech online and attacks against providers like you? >> we know, really, online threats mean, in addition to just creating an atmosphere of bullying for young people, and also creates an atmosphere of delegitimizing our real professional, trained work at inside-out youth services. it is just so critically important that we can continue

doing the work that we do. but i want to tell just one quick story, because it's beautiful. we have an online community center, and it is moderated by pierre advisers. when asked how many issues of fighting or contention do you deal with on the discord server, our young people tell us, well, it doesn't happen very often. so i'm here to tell you that our young people have figured out how to moderate platforms and positive, productive ways, twitter, facebook, everybody else can figure it out. to you >> absolutely. >> that's robinson -- your report that these radicalizing posts, these grim or post that target lgbtq communities, they're related to acts in the real world. what happens online is often reflective of what happened to the real world. after governor desantis of florida passed his so-called don't say gay bill, what trends did you observe online with regard to grooming related

discourse? >> unfortunately, we saw a 400% increase on twitter of this sort of hateful language. particularly calling out community members, groomers and pedophiles. and we know that whether or not the bills move into effect, the lasting impact of that online bullying, of defining our communities and that way, it sticks. especially with our kids. >> my time has expired, but i just want to say i am proud to say, gay i'm proud to stand with the gay community and a proud that you are all here today as a part of our country and giving us testimony. i yield back, madam chair. >> shields. back miss cicilline, founder of the quality caucus that she chairs, mr. cicilline. >> thank you chair maloney, i also want to thank you for holding this important hearing in for being such a strong champion for the lgbtq+ community throughout your entire public life. i want to begin by reminding

everyone here, especially my colleagues across, aisle what this hearing is about. it is about the rise an anti lgbtq plus extremism and violence in the united states. despite this hearing, titled colleagues on both sides of the aisle have obviously condemned the attack at club q and violence more broadly at today's hearing. it is also telling that the republicans on this committee, with one exception, have not asked any questions about anti-lgbtq plus eye extremism and violence. instead, they've only wanted to talk about crime broadly or hate crimes against other communities. i'm disappointed not surprised that a few weeks after a killer murdered five people at an lgbtq+ i nightclub, republicans on this committee could not bring themselves to discuss anti lgbtqi+ violence in its cause us with our witnesses. our community is scared, terrified that will be a tackling to the doctor, attack doing tonight, club scared that will be attack simply for a

living as our authentic selves. unfortunately, this fire is well grounded. the attack at club q is only the latest high-profile example of violence against our community. in 2021, 20% of all reported hate crimes were motivated by hate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. let me repeat that. despite the fact that lgbtq+ people make up roughly 7% of the population, 20% or more than one of five reported hate crimes last years were motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity bias. my colleagues want to talk about anything but this anti-lgbtqi+ violence and the rhetoric that is contributed to it. this violence is impacting both lgbtqi+ people and our families. i ask unanimous consent to enter into the record statements from the equality caucus transient or task force, co-chairs -- about the fears of them and their families have experienced in the wake of anti-transgender rhetoric and violence. >> without objection. >> no it should have to fear

violence because of who they are who their family members are, but this violence is not happening in a vacuum. politicians at all levels of government are targeting our communities, spreading misinformation and looking to restrict our rights. republicans are happy to discuss our community when they're attacking our rights, when they're crying on the house floor because they oppose marriage equality or releasing statements attacking art community in press releases as they new bills targeting our community. but when it comes to actually discussing the violence against our community and its causes, just a quick condemnation about what happened at club q and violence broadly, and nothing more. in my, view this is shameful. i'm going to begin, miss robinson, i get by thinking all the witnesses for being here today. miss robinson, as we near the end of this hearing, is there anything that we've not covered yet relating to anti-lgbtq plus extremism and violence that you would like to share for the record? >> we can do something about this. we can ensure that social media companies uphold their community standards. we can pass the equality act to

ensure that lgbtq+ people actually don't have legalized discrimination happening to them in more than half of the states. we can, as a community, step up and say that we wholeheartedly, no matter what our priority affiliation is, repudiate and rebuke these horrendous attacks on our people. there's work to be done and especially on this ten year mark of sandy hook, we can do something to end this epidemic of gun violence. we have to and we must. >> thank. you and mr. wolf, thank you for being here and sharing your story. what message do you have to politicians who are championing bills to limit the rights of the lgbtq i a+ community? >> thank, you i'm grateful to be here. my message is, simple words have consequences. somebody has to pay the price for unmitigated, unbridled hatred, the kind of hatred that we've seen on the rise across this country. we've heard a lot about accountability in this hearing and i'm glad we are talking about accountability.

no one is asking for anyone but the shooter at club q to be on trial in colorado springs. but what we are saying is that people should be accountable for the things that come out of their mouths, and when you're willing to traffic in cheap shots and bigotry against a marginalized community that is already seeing heat against it on the rise. already seeing violence rising across the country. when you're willing to traffic in those things to score political points, you have to be accountable for what happens next. you have told yourself accountable for the impacts of your words. words really do have consequences, unfortunately, communities like mine have felt them. we have to do better than we are today. >> thank, you i want to thank you, madam chair, for being able to waive on to the community hearing. and i think, to mr. wolf's point, he up to not only condemned these statements and this rhetoric, but we sadly have members of the congress of the united states that are engaging in the use of some of this very inflammatory rhetoric against the lgbtqi+ community

and it needs to stop now. >> gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from new york, mr. mondaire jones, is now recognized. >> thank, you madam chair, i join the chorus of my colleagues and celebrating your tremendous service in this body over the past several decades. your stalwart championing of our community, the lgbtq+ community. so, thank you for that. i sat on the floor of the house during the debate on the equality act, to grow up poor, black and gay is denies yourself anywhere. it is also to feel completely unseen, as so many people around you invalidate your very existence. growing up, like many people in this room, i suspect, i watched as straight politicians, many of them white, many of the men, used my basic human rights as a political football to further their careers.

now, as the first openly gay black member in this body, i'm even more familiar with the vile anti lgbtq rhetoric that terrorizes our community. and that somehow is even more harmful when it's aimed at queer people of color. let me also just say, take amplify what right presented of porter had discussed previously, that i am people on my team have also reported many of these twitter accounts. that have hurled explicitly homophobic insults me in particular. and received emails stating that they're not somehow in violation of twitters purported standards. so, clearly, there is something amiss at twitter. but we have known that for the past few months, given the leadership changes. many of us are scared for our lives, and rightly so. lgbtq americans know that gay bars and clubs are sanctuaries for our community to gather without fear of being judged,

simply for being who they are. for many, these bases become second homes where we can experience the full freedom to be ourselves. such was the case for me. and my first day of law school, when i was still closeted, the gay bars of new york city where the only place i could be my authentic self. and those pieces help me to come out and to be the man, the congressman, but i am today. i cannot imagine my journey to self acceptance and understanding without the sanctuaries, which are now under assault. the horrific mass shootings at pulse nightclub and club q create fear among lgbtq americans, that debars and clubs, these places of refuge for members of our community, are no longer safe. these attacks, alongside other acts of violence against our community on the growing chorus of hate and disinformation against lgbtq people tell us that, over the past few years, this country has become a more

dangerous place for us to live, unfortunately. even those who simply provide services essential to the mental and physical well-being of members of our community are under attack. earlier this month, a doctor affiliated with the national lgbtq i a+ health education center in boston faced credible death threats for their role in providing gender affirming care to transgender youth. the following, day the first unitarian universalist church in columbus, ohio was forced to cancel a family friendly holiday themed drag queen storytelling event after far-right extremists from the proud boys in the patriot front showed up to protest, armed with ar-15s, dressed in military gear, chanting far-right slogans and performing nazi salutes. when leaders across the country, including sitting members of congress, are peddling age-old hateful and false narratives about grooming and pedophilia,

these are the types of people who show up and respond. recent human rights campaign report found that as the florida state government enacted its discriminatory don't say gay law, anti lgbtq misinformation surged by over 400% on social media platforms. and, worse instead of condemning this deadly wave of misinformation and, hate members of this body have added fuel to the fire. in october of this year, representative mike johnson of louisiana introduced his own don't say guilt gate bill to amplify disable policy on a national scale. and dozens of members of this body co-sponsor that legislation. shame on them. if enacted, mr. johnson's heinous bill, would among other, things perhaps a federally funded schools from providing sex education or library books to children under ten that include lgbtq topics. in doing so, his bill would send a message to lgbtq children in the most vulnerable stage of their lives, that they

are another whose very existence society refuses to recognize. it is hard, in closing, to listen to the stories of club q and the pulse nightclub survivors and not be in awe of their bravery and resilience. and, so i thank you for your courage. i'm furious that our community is forced to live again and again with this pain. but i'm optimistic about the future of this country, with your leadership -- i yield, back madam chair. >> gentleman's time has expired. folks have been called, i now recognize the gentleman, vice chair gomez, you are recognized for five minutes. >> thank, you madam chair, for calling this important hearing. as we've known for far too long, words have consequences. especially when they're coming from our elected leaders. horizon anti lgbtq violence is linked with the rise of inflammatory rhetoric from the

far-right, especially since the election of former president trump. make no mistake, those on the far-right who are spreading misinformation and hateful rhetoric are often the same individuals and groups have helped in orchestrate and carry out the january six insurrection. just like in the aftermath of the 2020 election, extremists are intentionally manufacturing falsehoods about the lgbt community. now they are attempting to stir violence and scare americans as a push their radical agenda to roll back the clock on civil rights. people look to their elected leaders to tell them the truth. instead, republican candidates and politicians pair misinformation and hate. get these dangerous lies, a much larger platform. when dangerous extremist believe these lies, it paints a target on the backs of lgbtq communities and leads to real world violence. now, republican lawmakers across the country are moving to make discrimination official

government policy. this year alone, we've seen more than 20 states introduce don't say gay bills aimed at erasing lgbtq history and culture from being taught. and the dying lgbtq students the right to be affirmed and supportive in their education. but it's not just at the state level. in october, 38 of my republican colleagues introduced federal legislation inspired by florida's don't say gay or trans law. which would restrict federal funding for schools and incorporate funding that recognizes and supports lgbtq students. miss pocock, what -- why it's a federal doomsday gay or trans bill so dangerous, particularly for lgbtq youth? and how does that risk further undermining the health and safety of lgbtq young people? >> thank you.

you know, the difficulty of a bill like a don't say gay bill is that it erases us, doesn't amplified to young people their mentors, teachers, congressman, congresswomen who are similar to them. we're doing really incredible work for our country. it doesn't set the platform up for them to see themselves in their future. but it also minimizes the experience of their families. and so, really, again, the best thing we can do for young people is see them. hear them and recognize them. >> thank you. as somebody who has a sibling who is gay, i grew up back in a very conservative area and california, back in the 80s. riverside. not seeing individuals who have

leadership positions we're also just straight-up discriminated against because they are lgbtq, gay or lesbian or non binary or trans, it was something i knew had a profound impact on him. but also on myself. and public that made me question why things are the way they are, why somebody that i care, about somebody that i love deeply is being punished for her there. . schools, oftentimes when you don't get that affirmation in her school, then you don't want to go to school. unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, my brother never finished high school. but he ended up going and getting his ged. he was smarter than i ever was or would be. he ended up going off to uc santa cruz and getting his degree and becoming a teacher and educator.

but some of those examples makes a difference. thank you for mentioning that, dr., because i think that's what we need to ensure. this is not the end of the discussion over or of this fight, but we're pushing back on the rhetoric that i believe this are dangerous for the health of our young people. also just for communities as a whole. with the remaining time i have, i just want to congratulate chairwoman maloney for her tenure here in congress. and then also being a champion for women's rights, lgbt rights, the disenfranchised. and ensuring that we have a stronger democracy. with, that i yield back, graduation to madam chairwoman. >> thank you so much. i now recognize myself. we are experiencing a crisis and i must say that a panels,

first i want to thank all my colleagues that participated, but the panel was a particularly articulate and informed one. you gave us a great deal to think about on a very difficult subject. this was put together very quickly by the health team and the domestic policy team. i particularly want to thank miles lichtman and daniel yamur for an excellent job putting this together. and your entire team will continue working on these important issues. today's hearing as one of the final hearings of the 117th congress, examining one of the most pressing issues that our nation will face in the years to come. the rise of extremism and violence targeting lgbtq i a+ people in the united states. we heard from the brave survivors of violent attacks against the lgbtq i community

and nightclubs in colorado springs and orlando. the stories were heartbreaking because they should not have to be so brave. like every person who goes up to celebrate with their friends and their loved ones, they deserve to be joyful and free and secure in our country. well today's hearing examined the challenges our society faces and ensuring that lgbtqia people can ended six free from violence and bigotry, and also offered a vision for a more inspiring future. one where lgbtqi+ have the freedom to live authentically and freely and safely. as our nation continues to grapple with the recent tragedy at club q, i hope that we in congress can look inward and find the courage to not only

stand against this bigotry but to also take bold action to end it. we can do that by building on the progress of the past several months, which includes commodifying protections for the same-sex marriages and enacting the first common sense gun safety package in decades. a package that follows this committee's hearing, examining the senseless violence that occurred in uvalde, buffalo and other communities across the united states. but as we remember, as we remember the 20 children and the six educators who lost their lives at sandy hook years ago, we are reminded that much more needs to be done to stop senseless bloodshed. i applaud president biden for his action yesterday and signing the important bill on marriage equality. now, before i conclude, i would like to enter into the record a number of statements the

committee received ahead of today's hearings. these were submissions from my colleagues. congresswoman jayapal, congresswoman wexton. congresswoman newman. dr. meredith nickname are, who provides critically needed care to transgender patients in new haven, connecticut. the whitman walker institute. and more than 40 lgbtq i a+ rights advocacy organizations and in support of gender affirming care. the national woman's law center, the national education association and the united states professional association for transgender health. there is a tremendous outpouring of support and interest in this hearing. we thank all of you very, very much. and with that, i would like to conclude by saying that our

panelists were remarkable. we thank you for your remarks, and i commend my colleagues. without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit extraneous materials to submit additional written questions for the witnesses to the chair, which will be forwarded to the witnesses. and we hope you have your swift response. i ask our witnesses to please respond as promptly as possible. with that, this hearing is adjourned and i am running to vote.

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