Friend,

America has a long history of racism against Asians. Last week, we saw that hatred take the lives of eight victims in Atlanta. This violence isn’t new. We need to stand in solidarity with our friends and neighbors and take real action to protect Asian members of our communities.

On Monday, I proposed new policy initiatives to empower AAPI Virginians, including:

• Disarming white supremacists and misogynists by prohibiting convicted domestic abusers and perpetrators of hate crimes from purchasing firearms, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and creating waiting periods for gun purchases
• Improving hate-crime reporting by promoting community-based data collection
• Ending all cooperation between ICE and our Commonwealth
• Diversifying school curricula to incorporate more Asian-American contributions and accurately represent America’s history of racism against Asians
• And decriminalizing sex work and ensuring that sex workers are safe from violence

If you’d like to read my full statement, you can find it here. »

Over the past week, I’ve been listening and reflecting. I think these policies are a good place to begin the conversation about what steps we can take to reduce hate crimes and racially-motivated violence in our communities. I’m always learning and communicating with advocates, activists, and policymakers about real changes we can make so we can show up for marginalized communities.

When tragedy strikes, we can't just give platitudes - we also need action. These policies are only a start. We need change here in Virginia, and that starts with supporting marginalized communities and working together to stop hate and violence.

In solidarity,
Sean Perryman