LGBTQ+ youth say prisons and policing fail hate crime victims. Now what?

A new youth-led publication is challenging how communities respond to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, urging a move away from policing and incarceration and toward community-based solutions.

The Black Lives Matter and Stop AAPI Hate movements led student Jacqueline Pham to grapple with questions around the criminal legal system and prison reform. Over time, they came to identify as a prison abolitionist, embracing a political framework that calls for dismantling prisons to address systemic racial injustice.

Still, Pham had questions: What does it mean to address acts of violence, like hate crimes, in a justice system that does not rely on punishment or incarceration?

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After an act of violence, “I want my community to feel validated and legitimate,” Pham recalled thinking. “I don't really like police or prisons, but what other choices do we have?”

These questions take center stage in a new zine written by Pham and released by the social justice organization GSA Network and the legal rights nonprofit the Transgender Law Center. A zine — short for “magazine” or “fanzine” — is a typically low-cost, self-published booklet that blends personal storytelling, art, and political ideas to share perspectives outside traditional media.

Violent crime is declining in the United States, but LGBTQ+ individuals still face disproportionate risks of identity-based acts of violence. In 2024, 17.2 percent of all hate crimes reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation targeted individuals based on their sexual orientation, and 4 percent targeted people based on their gender identity.

Discussions around justice and political reform are central to the work of both groups, according to GSA Network Co-Executive Director Gia Loving.

“How do we support folks who have been hurt within [the] community and are looking for accountability?” Loving told The Advocate. “That question’s been coming up … for the last 10 years.”

As a college student, Pham joined the GSA Network as a youth research fellow and helped draft a zine exploring these issues, entitled “We Protect Us.” Illustrated by Jessica Nguyen, the zine is accessible for free online.

The central argument of the zine is that the prison system perpetuates racial injustice and that incarceration does not meaningfully improve safety for marginalized communities. Across federal prisons, 38 percent of people incarcerated are Black, despite Black Americans making up roughly 14 percent of the national population.

The zine calls for community-based support and organizing as both prevention and response to harm, including after experiences like hate crimes.

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“Safety isn’t going to come from the state,” Chris Chavers, senior national policy and programs organizer for the Transgender Law Center, told The Advocate. “All it does is lead to more incarceration and policing.”

The zine asks readers to actively imagine alternatives, featuring discussion prompts and write-in sections designated to help communities envision ways to address harm without relying on policing or incarceration.

It also centers young people, highlighting their role in shaping the future of both prison reform and LGBTQ+ organizing. The zine includes excerpts from interviews with teens. “Young people are very much engaged in real conversations [about] making the world a better place,” Loving said.

Within a prison abolitionist lens, finding solutions to acts of violence against marginalized groups like the LGBTQ+ community will require “a lot of creativity,” Chavers said. The zine, in that sense, is intended to spark conversation at a moment when debates over safety, policing, and LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly urgent.

Youth are “the best people to be in the conversation,” Loving said. “How do you keep yourself safe? We need actual youth leaders brainstorming that.”

This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.