Humboldt LGBTQIA Community

With the LGBTQIA community in Humboldt growing, especially in the Cal poly Humboldt Area, what are local officials and legislation gonna do to ensure the safety of this community from hate crimes. This is a recurring problem in Humboldt and as an activist for LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities, I want answers.

— Reid Patrick Reid

Responses

Brett Watson

I really appreciate you bringing this issue to the forefront of the conversation. In my five years on the Arcata City Council I’ve never seen and heard of so much hostility towards these communities as I have this last year. I’m half Mexican on my mother’s side but the world identifies me as white. Though I’ve witnessed racism and hostility towards my Hispanic family members, my light skin color has afforded me the privilege of never having to experience these things. Also, the rest of the City Council is white. You might agree that the solution is not going to be found by five white people, right? For this reason I believe the Arcata City Council needs to engage the LGBTQIA and BIPOC communities to hear directly from those who experience marginalization and hate, often on a daily basis. I propose we immediately form a new city committee, task force, or working group comprised of members of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA communities, as well as one or two council members, the City Manager, a representative from the Cal Poly Humboldt administration (President Jackson?), and representation from Arcata Police- IF the group desires a police presence. This new City body would be provided with City resources to research best practices to defend these valuable communities, educate the public, and find ways to support the growth of BIPOC and LGBTQIA communities. And not just within the City, but county-wide. A group like this will set a precedence that will hopefully encourage our neighboring cities to follow our example and perhaps we may begin to collaborate on a county-wide effort. Your time is valuable, especially in today’s world. You have jobs, school, and family to balance so I also suggest we pay each member of this new City group a stipend of $40.00 per meeting. These meetings usually last for up to two hours, so that would be $20/hr. Lastly, this doesn’t have to be an election issue! We can do this NOW! Before posting this answer, I emailed every Council Member and requested we agendize this issue and proposal as soon as possible. Hopefully at our next meeting. The next Arcata City Council meeting is Wednesday, September 7th. I encourage anyone interested in this issue to come and make public comment. You can also write to your Council Members to share your experiences and to tell us what YOU think we should consider doing. Please write to me and let me know if you’d like to discuss this further. We can arrange an in person meeting at City Hall, or a phone call. Thanks again for opportunity to address this question. Brett Watson Arcata City Councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar satkinssalazar@cityofarcata.org Meredith Matthews

Meredith Matthews

Reid,

Thank you so much for this question. Being an ally to all of our underrepresented communities is very important to me. I have worked closely and built relationships with Queer Humboldt and Redwood Pride this year, trying to organize a Pride on the Plaza event in June, (sadly, it got rained out.) I continue to build on these relationships as I serve on the Equity Arcata design team, trying to find ways to ensure the safety of out LGBTQIA+ community. I have spoken, twice, at Council meetings condemning hate, you can read about it here: Council counters recent hate attacks - Mad River Union. As a Jewish woman, I know first hand about hate, and do everything in my power to speak out against it. I am also a member of our Anti-Semitism task force. It is very important for me to SHOW UP to all these events and be a representative not only as a Council Member, but as a human.

I am also proud of the growing relationship that I have fostered with the Wiyot Tribe, and am looking forward to some projects that we have in discussion.

I urge you to contact me directly if you observe any hate against your community.

Raelina Krikston

Hey there, good question, and rightfully so, we should be doing everything in our power to ensure our community, no matter their background, or identity, should treat one another with respect and kindness.

One thing that I would like to facilitate is more community conversations and opportunities to show up for one another. When it comes down to it, we’re all people, and have a lot more common ground even if we think we’re different. A lot of misunderstandings or prejudice can be remedied by sharing a meal together.

We’re only three bridges away from being an island, that why I think self-sustainability is so important for our community to be able to survive and thrive into the future as well as seeing your fellow human as a friend and neighbor rather than “otherizing” what we don’t understand.

I think that recognition of the issue is important and also scrutinizing how we enforce and police these kinds of crimes. By ensuring we can be more empathetic with one another, but also not being afraid to call out what is wrong and find justice for those who have been victimized.

Without a specific instance it’s hard to give a specific solution, but acknowledgement and working to build community bridges is the first step to creating a more fair and just community.

Kimberley White

Thank you for putting your concerns of safety and hate crimes in our community to the forefront. It also is on the forefront for me as well. First let me say, I am a person of color. Although you would not know it from a last name like “White”, I am latinx. I am also co-coordinator for CUNA (Comunidad Unida del Norte de Arcata/Community United of North Arcata). We are a grassroots latinx led project to build a better represented Valley West.

In July when vandals defaced the Jardin’s welcome sign, spray painting it black with the words ‘AMERICA USA’ in red, Centro del Pueblo called upon CUNA to stand in solidarity. We left our staff meeting immediately and went to Jardin Santuario (Sanctuary Garden). CUNA represents not only the latinx community but all marginalized communities including our LGBTQIA community.

In particular with the expansion of Cal Poly Humboldt our law enforcement agencies in Arcata, both APD and UPD, need to come together and make it a priority to combat hate crimes and send a message that harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. We must bring additional training for our law enforcement agencies and we need to use a community policing model and identify community partners. What we know is when law enforcement builds community partnerships they are more aware of potential hate incidents before they escalate to serious crimes. We can never let another incident such as the Josiah Lawson murder ever happen again in Arcata.

We also must create a special task force on hate crimes and a community-wide public awareness campaign in order to better understand the problem. One assessment tool to gain awareness and understanding is the SARA model: scanning for the problems, analyzing the facts, responding to reduce the problems, and assessing the outcome of the response. While it is typically used in law enforcement it can be used by anyone.

Community members will more likely report hate crimes when they feel that something will come from reporting a hate crime. There simply is no room for hate in Arcata and I will make it a priority and will continue to stand in solidarity against all hate crimes in Arcata and Humboldt County.

Reid Patrick Reid asks Kimberley White, Meredith Matthews, Brett Watson, Raelina Krikston , Dana Quillman, Jeffrey Scott Sterling…