Giving Compass' Take:

• Brian Malte, Executive Director of Hope and Heal Fund, discusses new research that will uncover actionable data on the impacts of gun violence in the LGBTQ community. 

• It's crucial to include marginalized groups when engaged in the gun violence debate. 

• Here's why it's important to treat gun violence in general as a public health issue.

What started as a national outcry around school safety in the wake of the tragic shooting in Parkland has sparked a national conversation about the many ways gun violence impacts young lives... [but] there is no one-size-fits all solution to the gun violence epidemic. Gun violence impacts each of us and our communities in different ways. And we must understand these differences in order to uncover solutions that work.

This was evident to me after 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in 2016 in an attack that specifically targeted the LGBTQ community. While working on the national scene for gun reforms, I had the privilege of escorting a survivor of that tragedy around Capitol Hill to speak with members of Congress about solutions to gun violence. Afterwards, I began asking LGBTQ organizations what they knew about the impact of gun violence in their community. I heard tragic stories about suicides among LGTBQ teens, hate crimes and the senseless murders of transgender women  —  all preventable, and all involving guns. What I did not find was any research on how gun violence impacts the LGBTQ community.

How can we as a society tackle a public health problem if we don’t know the extent of the problem we are dealing with? The lack of baseline data on the intersection of gun violence and the LGBTQ community is incredibly troubling.

The Hope and Heal Fund is announcing an important grant to the Williams Institute at UCLA to uncover all the information that exists on the subject and, more importantly, recommend the next steps to fill research gaps.

Read the full article about gun violence by Brian Malte from The Hope and Heal Fund at medium.com