Hate crimes are all the rage these days. From HRC’s Back Story:
Today the FBI released its 2006 hate crimes statistics… [the Bureau] reported hate crimes incidents rose by 8% in 2006.
…
Hate crimes based on sexual orientation totaled 15.5% of incidents reported (1,195 incidents). This is an increase from the 2005 report where hate crimes based on sexual orientation totaled 14.2% of incidents reported (1,017).
51.8% of the attacks were race-based, while 18.9 were religious based, most of which were anti-Jewish.
We’ve included the gay breakdown after the jump.
The columns, left to right: Incidents, Offenses, Victims, Known Offenders.
Note there’s no information on anti-trans hate crimes.
SeaFlood
I’m not satisfied with this as it lumps too many people together thus making others invisible. What about non-white? What about transgendered?
Long as we keep pretending we are single-issue people, long as we allow ourselves to be duped into believing we are being protected.
Bill Perdue
“I have no doubt we shall win, but the road is long and red with monstrous martyrdomsâ€.
Oscar Wilde
Wilde was a hero because he accepted himself.They victimized him for it just like they victimize all GLBT folk who accept themselves. But often their quiet heroism is met with violence.
GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, a member of UnitedENDA, says in their 2005 National School Climate Survey that 75. 4% of students heard “faggot” or “dyke” frequently. 37.8% were physically HARASSED because of sexual orientation and 26.1% because of their gender expression. 17.6% OF STUDENTS WERE PHYSICALLY ASSAULTED BECAUSE OF THEIR SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND 11.8% BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER EXPRESSION.
The US Department of Justice, in its report Hate Crimes on Campus (DOJ Publication NJC187249) says that campus hate crimes usually go unreported. They state that “students report hearing degrading language about women, gays and lesbians on a daily basis…†and that “the use of such language creates an atmosphere that permits conduct to escalate from mere words to stronger words, to threats, and ultimately to violence.â€
Young gays and lesbians aren’t the only victims, just the least protected. Violence and harassment against LGBT people as a whole is on the rise again according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, also a member of UnitedENDA. Political and religious bigotry is the immediate and primary cause of violence against lesbians and gays. The usual suspects are the Republican-christian totalitarian axis of evil and Democrats who pander to bigots. Hostility to same-sex marriage is a flashpoint in encouraging violence. When San Francisco briefly allowed same-sex marriages ceremonies violence in that city rapidly spiked with a 14% increase.
In 2007-8 with the elections generating higher levels of hate speech by politicians, priests and preachers these figures and the stats for hate crimes will rise in parallel. We’ll all have to remember to look out for one another until after the elections.
The NCAVP’s and FBI’s counts are just indicators. They don’t include unreported incidents or those disregarded by homophobic police and DA’s.
Malcolm X, before he was murdered, discussed taking the case against racist violence in the US before the UN and the World Court. We’d be doing ourselves a favor stealing a page from his book. Especially since UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour says that “violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons is frequently unreported, undocumented and goes ultimately unpunished. … This shameful silence is the ultimate rejection of the fundamental principle of universality of rights. … “ The UN and UnitedENDA want everyone in the LGBT equation protected from violence and discrimination even if Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi can’t stomach the idea.
Whatever the numbers, these beatings, murders and other kinds of abuse are intolerable. These aren’t the Dark Ages and we shouldn’t have to live with that fear.
American society can be suitably described as a quagmire of bigotries that the ruling rich use to divide and conquer. The good news is that everybody’s fighting back these days. As the fights erupt in this or that arena people are learning the necessity of solidarity and most importantly that audacity works.
“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Benjamin Franklin