You might think there is a "huge difference" but the effects on gay people are much the same at the end of the day. People such as yourself, social conservatives, Bush and his supporters, and of course the clergy are at least partly responsible (if indirectly) for the upswing of violence against gays and lesbians during 2003 and 2004.
Gay-Hate Crimes Down
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
May 19, 2006 - 1:00 pm ET
(New York City) Hate crimes against members of LGBT communities nationwide fell 13 percent in 2005 from all-time highs in the two previous years a new report shows.
The study, released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and fourteen of its members across the country, still found there were almost 2,000 hate-related incidents in thirteen major cities including New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.
The annual NCAVP report is compiled by agencies that deal with LGBT victims of hate crimes. It is considered more accurate than one published by the FBI which relies on law enforcement reports of such crimes rather than victim service data.
Many LGBT crime victims are reluctant report incidents to police.
The NCAVP survey found anti-LGBT violence fell from 2,270 in 2004 to 1,985 in 2005.
Included in the decline in incidents for the year, was a 15% decrease in anti-LGBT murders in reporting regions - falling from 13 in 2004 to 11 in 2005.
But not every part of the country found LGBT-bias crimes down. Cleveland, Houston, Massachusetts, and Vermont reported slight increases.
One of the reasons LGBT crime increased in 2003 - 2004 was the use anti-gay-marriage amendments in a number of states, and the so-called federal marriage amendment, as a campaign tool by conservative Republicans. In addition the profile of gays was raised in the media as a result of the Supreme Court ruling overturning sodomy laws and the decision by the high court in Massachusetts to permit same-sex marriage.
?This year?s report can be viewed as an has to be viewed as an indication that after almost two years of wholesale attack on LGBT individuals, communities and families, 2005 offered a respite of sorts for our community's experience with hate violence,? said Clarence Patton, NCAVP leader and executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
?In the last two editions of this report was all too clear that with respect to violence, the nation's LGBT communities had entered a very new, and very dangerous era in which all of us were under attack at levels not seen in recent years," continued Patton.
But he warned that 2006 may see an increase in crimes against gays.
" The fact is that LGBT people are once again slated to be "on the ballot" again in a number of states in the 2006 election season and Senator Frist (the Senate Majority Leader) plans to take action on the Federal Marriage Amendment in early June, setting off another round of political bashing of our community that will no doubt be accompanied by the cultural and physical bashing we experienced across the country in 2003 and 2004," Patton said.
©365Gay.com 2006
