Rocky Mountain Equality and District Attorney’s Office Speak Out Against Exclusion of Gender Identity from Hate Crime Statistics

Rocky Mountain Equality (RMEQ) and the District Attorney’s Office for the 20th Judicial District (Boulder County) have released a statement opposing the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) decision to eliminate questions related to gender identity from hate crime data collection:

We are united in our goal to ensure that everyone’s safety and freedoms are protected. Furthermore, we are committed to the ideal of building a world where all people, regardless of who they are or how they identify, live free from violence, harassment, and fear.

It is in this spirit that we strongly oppose the BJS decision to eliminate questions related to gender identity from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) in response to Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” This policy change will effectively end the tracking of hate-based violence on gender identity in federal hate crime statistics, limiting our nation’s capacity to track crime victimization and rendering the experiences of countless victims of violence invisible. 

The new federal rule comes in the midst of a crisis of bias-motivated violence against people because of their gender identity. The Hate Free Colorado Survey (HFCS), conducted in 2022, found that nearly three in ten Coloradans, about 1.25 million people, have experienced a hate crime or bias-motivated incident in the last five years. Within this group, one in four people attributed the cause of these incidents to their gender identity. That’s over 300,000 Coloradans. Overall, the survey found that one third to one half of transgender and non-binary Coloradans have endured these incidents. The HFCS further found that less than three in ten hate crimes or bias-motivated incidents in Colorado are reported.

Colorado is not the only state facing this crisis. GLAAD has recorded 2,242 attacks against members of the LGBTQ community in the United States since June 2022. Violence and extremism on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is growing more frequent and dangerous across the United States. 

It is essential that lawmakers and law enforcement have access to all available resources in order to understand the size, scope, and nature of the spread of anti-LGBTQ+ violence. Instead, the Trump administration is actively fanning the flames of that violence and silencing the voices of people who have been victimized because of who they are. 

This policy change may have come in response to an executive order, but it has absolutely no legal basis. The Department of Justice is required by law to track hate crimes that occur on the basis of gender identity. More importantly, the new rule has no moral basis – no matter one’s opinions on gender identity, all of us have an obligation to understand why violent crimes happen and to contribute to public policy centered around preventing, and responding to, all violent crimes. 

We call on the federal government to immediately reverse this harmful decision and reinstate questions related to gender identity in the NCVS. Our ability to protect the public and ensure equal justice under the law depends on accurate data and honest recognition of the violence many face because of who they are.

In Colorado, we continue to affirm the dignity of every person, fight back against discrimination, and do everything in our power to ensure that transgender and non-binary people remain protected by the law and supported by our community.