Last year’s 29 killings was the highest recorded by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs since 1999, when it documented the same number of slayings, according to a report released Tuesday by the coalition.

“What we’re also seeing, more disturbingly, is the increase in the severity of violence,” said Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, which coordinates coalition.

Stapel theorized that at least some of last year’s violence was backlash against issues that arose during the during the presidential campaign. She cited debates about same-sex marriage, the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and federal legislation that would ban employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as possible flash points.

“The more visibility there is the more likely we’re going to see backlash, and that’s exactly what we see here,” Stapel said.

Overall, the number of victims who reported anti-LGBT violence in 2008 increased by two percent compared to 2007, said the New York-based coalition of programs in 25 states.

Coalition officials say their figures are more accurate than those from law enforcement agencies. As an example, they say, the FBI doesn’t record bias crimes against transgender people because gender identity isn’t covered by federal hate-crime law.

Also, victims sometimes are reluctant to report bias incidents to police because they don’t want to reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity and/or they fear bias from police, officials said.

Reports of physical abuse by police increased to 25 incidents last year from 10 in 2007, the report said.

For the new report, programs in Milwaukee, Minnesota, Chicago, Los Angeles, Colorado, Columbus, Ohio, Houston, Pennsylvania, New York City, Kansas City, Missouri, Michigan and San Francisco submitted data.

Programs in Vermont and the Boston area participated in the 2007 report but not the current one. The program in Rochester, N.Y., participated in 2008 for the first time.

The largest increase – 64 percent – was in Milwaukee, where the number of reported incidents rose to 18 in 2008 from 11 in 2007, the report said.

Officials weren’t sure whether reported increases were attributable to more people reporting incidents or an actual rise.

Meighan Bentz, a victim outreach advocate at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, which includes an anti-violence project, said, “I think it’s a combination.”

“Certainly there are more people reporting,” Bentz said, adding that the project started in 2005. “As time goes on there are more people aware of our program as a resource.”

Bentz added, “I do believe there are ongoing issues of violence and its affect upon LGBT individuals. It’s a vulnerable population.”

Many of 2008’s incidents made headlines.

In December, a man was beaten to death in New York City while he walked arm in arm with his brother as their attackers yelled anti-gay and anti-Latino epithets. Two men have been charged with murder as a hate crime.

In February 2008, 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot to death at school in Oxnard, Calif., near Malibu after enduring harassment after he told classmates he was gay; a classmate is charged as an adult in the killing, which prosecutors classified as a hate crime.

Last June, a surveillance tape was publicized showing Memphis, Tenn., police officers beating Duanna Johnson, a transgender woman, and shouting slurs in a jail booking area; a public outcry erupted.

In November, Johnson was found fatally shot on a Memphis street.

Kevin Lee Miller, 41, didn’t threaten anyone police said; a reporter for WHIO Dayton said he was making people uncomfortable and that people felt “safer” upon his arrest. He was charged with five counts of public indecency and three counts of menacing.

The report, which was picked up by CNN Headline News, seemed to suggest that the man was menacing because he called attention to the fact he was wearing a women’s bathing suit.

Was the reporter biased? See for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.

Peter de Vries, 55, and Timothy Carter, 45, won a $2.8 million judgment against the town last month in court. The jury also ordered the town to pay $2 million in legal fees.

Mayor Dennis Elwell tells the Jersey Journal that he demanded the resignations.

“It’s been a dark day, but it was necessary to show that the governing body and town will not tolerate this or any type of incident similar to this,” Elwell told the paper.

When de Vries and Carter bought their dream house, they knew it was beside a fire station, but figured they’d get used to the occasional noise from the sirens as the volunteer firefighters raced to a blaze.

What they hadn’t counted on was the homophobic attitude at the the North End Firehouse once the crew realized the new neighbors were gay.

In their suit, de Vries and Carter alleged harassment, discrimination, retaliation, negligence and violation of state civil rights laws.

The lawsuit named the fire department, the town, the police department, Fire Chief Frank Walters, Town Administrator Anthony Iacono, Mayor Dennis Elwell and 30 others including the three firefighters who resigned.

In one incident outlined in court documents, firefighters were having a “boisterous” party outside the station.  The couple asked them to quiet down and the firefighters retaliated by throwing rocks at their house and issuing death threats to the men, according to the suit.

Complaints to the town went unanswered the suit said, and the couple eventually sold the house and moved out of town.

In a stinging rebuke, US District Judge Richard Smoak, said in a written ruling that Ponce de Leon High School principal David Davis led a “relentless crusade” against homosexuality at the school.

“Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a witch hunt,” Smoak’s ruling said. The ruling also said that Davis led “morality assemblies” that ignored the First Amendment.

The written ruling was released two months after student Heather Gillman and the American Civil Liberties Union won a free-speech lawsuit that cost the school district $325,000.

Davis has since been replaced as principal.

During the two-day trial in May, Davis testified that he believed clothing, buttons or stickers featuring rainbows would make students automatically picture gay people having sex.

He went on to admit that while censoring rainbows and gay pride messages, he allowed students to wear other symbols many find controversial, such as the Confederate flag.

Gillman, a 16-year-old junior at Ponce de Leon High School, sued the school with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union after she was told she could not wear buttons, stickers or clothing that supported LGBT civil rights.

The ACLU last November sent a letter to the school board’s attorney on behalf of Gillman, asking for clarification as to whether a variety of symbols and slogans, such as the rainbow flag or “I support my gay friends,” would be allowed at the school.

The school district replied that it would not allow any expressions of support for gay rights at all because such speech would “likely be disruptive.”

The district then said that such symbols and slogans were signs that students were part of a “secret/illegal organization.”

Tensions began in September 2007, when a lesbian student tried to report to school officials that she was being harassed by other students because she is a lesbian. Instead of addressing the harassment, students say the school responded with intimidation, censorship and suspensions.

Prior to the release of his written ruling, Smoak issued an order that forced the school to stop its censorship of students who want to express their support for gay people. The judge also warned the district not to retaliate against students over the lawsuit.