Press Releases

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) is deeply concerned of three unsolved homicides of transgender women of color that occurred during the month of April in 2013, which continues a trend of murders of transgender and gender non-conforming women and people of color in the past few years. On Wednesday, April 3rd, Kelly Young, a 29-year-old black transgender woman, was found shot to death inside a home in Baltimore, Maryland. Then on Thursday, April 4th, 30-year-old Ashley Sinclair, a black transgender woman, was found shot to death in a wooded area in the Oak Ridge section of Orange County, Florida. And on April 30, another young black transgender woman, Cemia Dove, also known as Ci Ci was found on April 17 in a retention pond in Olmsted Township, Ohio. Dove, a 20-year-old woman, had multiple stab wounds, was tied to a concrete block, and was found naked from the waist down. As of April 30th, all three of these homicides remain unsolved.

Albany, NY – Anti-trafficking advocates, public health groups, LGBTQ organizations, civil and human rights advocates, and people with experience in the sex trades converged in Albany today to call on the New York State Senate and Assembly to pass legislation barring confiscation and introduction of possession condoms as evidence of prostitution-related offenses.

This April, The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) stands in solidarity with survivors and victims of sexual assault in commemorating the 13th annual National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. During this month, NCAVP raises awareness about this form of violence within and against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV-affected (LGBTQH) communities and calls for an end to sexual assault.

NEW YORK – As the U.S. Supreme Court deliberates over the issue of same-sex marriage, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) New Yorkers gathered outside a different federal court house in Manhattan to call attention to a less visible form of discrimination against LGBTQ people – the NYPD's stop and frisk practices. In the trial Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, several New Yorkers and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) challenge that the Bloomberg administration's stop-and-frisk policy includes racial profiling and suspicion-less stop-and-frisks that violate the Constitution's protections against racial discrimination and unreasonable searches and seizures.

Today - The New York City Anti-Violence Project’s (AVP) Executive Director, Sharon Stapel, joined President Obama on stage as he signed a reauthorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the first federal bill to contain LGBT-inclusive anti-discrimination provisions.  This bill represents two years of continuous work by AVP through our National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) program, and is a tremendous victory for all LGBT people in the United States.  Shortly before today's bill signing Sharon Stapel and a small group of advocates met with Vice President Biden, the sponsor of the original VAWA passed in 1994.