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Loading ...Anti-gay violence feared rising
12.15.2008 10:35am EST
(New York City) A rash of attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people across the country – including the severe beating of a New York man whose attackers believed he was gay – suggests the number of reported assaults could rise in 2008, an advocacy group said.
The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and they were expected to jump in 2008, said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.Officials were still crunching the 2008 figures, which will be released next spring, Stapel said.
The baseball bat murder of Ecuadorean immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay in New York on Sunday was the latest in a number of reported assaults, said the project, which coordinates organizations that document violence against LGBT and HIV-positive people. The attack left Sucuzhanay, 31, brain dead.
Since the February fatal shooting of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy who endured harassment after telling classmates he was gay, “we are witnessing what appears to be an increase in both the occurrence and severity of violence motivated by racism, homophobia, and transphobia,” said Stapel.
Stapel attributed the increase in part to more people reporting incidents, but she believed there actually could have been more assaults because 2008 was an election year.
“Election years are always violent years for us because of wedge issues,” Stapel said, referring to ballot measures this year banning gay marriage in California and Florida. “With increased visibility comes increased vulnerability to LGBT stereotypes and violence. We’ve seen some of the most violent hate crimes that we’ve seen in a while.”
In the case of Lawrence King, one of his classmates was charged as an adult in the slaying, which prosecutors classified as a hate crime.
Other incidents include the discovery of Angie Zapata’s body in July in her apartment in Greeley, Colo. Zapata, 18, was a transgender woman. Police have charged a man with murder as a hate crime in her death.
In June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgendered woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted. Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street in November.
Also in New York City, police arrested four teenagers on charges of assaulting a priest outside a shelter he ran for homeless transgender youths in July. Witnesses said the four teens had harassed and taunted residents with homophobic slurs and insults before the assault.
“I expect the number will increase from 2007 to 2008,” Stapel said. “I hope I’m wrong about that.”
Number of reported assault could rise in 2008? 2008 is ending in about 16 days. How old is this report?
It’s not that the report is old or that the stats will somehow sharply rise by the end of 2008. The “could rise” language means the number-crunchers wont know until early to mid 2009 how many reports of anti-LGBT violence have been made or how they compare to previous years–so they cannot yet say homophobic violence “has raised in 2008.”
Hate crimes against LGBT people are on the rise, yet, according to John Corvino, we should befriend people who work for hateful and lie-spreading groups like Focus on the Family.
I am not sure if any of them care, But the all of the arguments by the “Sanctity of Marriage” people give reason to the those that are truly hateful and bigoted to act out that hate.
People will be hurt and die becuase of Prop 8 and laws like that.
Tom in Long Beach
Interesting how the articles says that there’s an increase in anti-gay hate crimes during election years when gay rights issues are more visible and discussed. If this is indeed true what a frightening aspect to vocalizing our needs for equal rights….
I have said in previous posts that if we ever gain full equality, our enemies will no longer be able to attack us with the law, so they will attack us outside the law. This is just a small preview of things to come.
Gee, lets see do you think this will have anything to do with it?
See articles on the new UN Resoluion to decriminalize homosexuality. Here is what Matt Barber of ONE NEWS NOW says: The decision (I think the article meant resolution) represents just one step in the overall plan of homosexual strategists, according to Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel. “It’s a brave new world out there, and homosexual activists have infiltrated the ranks of the United Nations. So I will not be surprised if this resolution does in fact pass,” he contends.
. . . If the resolution succeeds, Barber fully expects a push to begin for recognition of homosexual “marriage” that could become a party of international treaties, binding signatory nations to recognition.
Using the threat of gay marriage to oppose a pro-gay law, ordinance, or resolution is a tactic the religious right have undertaken since their success in the 2004 general election. It is said that Bush was elected on the backs of so-called values voters who came to the polls in huge numbers to oppose same sex marriage.
Since that time, the religious right have sometimes tried to beat back potentially pro-gay laws or ordinances (be it anti-discrimination laws or hate crimes legislation) by claiming that they would lead us down a slippery slope to gay marriage, polygamy, and out-and-out chaos.
It’s never amusing when they manipulate this fear, but on this occasion it’s downright ugly.
To hear Barber say it, the United Nations should not worry about advocating that lgbts not be persecuted by arrest or death. Gays getting torched out of their homes or publicly hanged doesn’t seem to be a big deal to him….so there you have it folks, along with the known support from prior Nazi brown shirt (e.g. NaziROTC memeber) Papa Ratzi..crimes against Homosexuals..must always be better than allowing them to MARRY.
As more and more of the cults get painted into legal corners, they’ll lash out at the gay community, and their leaders will do absolutely nothing to express outrage at their flock’s unfettered violence. This is nothing new; they been using that tactic for years. Violence and fear tactics is what they do best. They truly feel that they can attack us with impunity, but they won’t always control the high ground.
And that rise is just from the police violence agsinst us alone.