New York –
Today, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) and fifteen of its members across the country released its annual report on violence against lesbians, gay men, bisexual people and transgender individuals. The 90-page report examines data compiled from almost 2,000 hate-related incidents in eleven cities, states and regions across the country: the Chicago area, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Colorado, Houston, Texas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, the New York City area, Pennsylvania and the San Francisco Bay area. Additional information was included from Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, Tucson, Arizona and Vermont.
NCAVP’s report is the most complete examination of such violence against LGBT people. Each year, the FBI publishes its own report on hate crimes, which includes anti-LGBT incidents, but it consistently contains information on far fewer cases than the NCAVP publication because it relies on law enforcement reports of such crimes rather than victim service organization data.
Overall, NCAVP’s report noted an 8% increase in reported incidents of anti-LGBT violence. Such incidents rose from 1,720 in 2003 to 1,792 in 2004. Included in rise in incidents for the year, was an 11% increase in anti-LGBT murders, which rose from 18 in 2003 to 20 in 2004. During 2004, the total number of victims rose 4%, from 2,042 in 2003 to 2,131 in 2004. Of the eleven locations included in the report, eight reported increases in incidents. According to the report, the number of anti-LGBT violence offenders rose also rose, by 7%, from 2,467 to 2,637.
The data in the report is submitted to NCAVP for analysis and derived from a common intake tool NCAVP’s members utilize when directly serving victims of violence at their agencies, which are primarily, local LGBT victim service organizations. According to NCAVP representatives, the data collected in for 2004 confirms that a dramatic rise in anti-LGBT hate incidents noted by the organization in the second half of 2003 continued unabated, and perhaps even worsened in throughout 2004.
“This year’s report has to be viewed as a follow-up to our report from a year ago,” said Clarence Patton, NCAVP’s Acting Executive Director. “In the last edition of this report it became 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.
NCAVP's report on hate violence in 2003 detailed the rapid shift and 26% increase in anti-LGBT violence as the nation responded politically and violently such victories for the community as the striking down of sodomy laws across the country and the right for same-sex couples to marry in Massachusetts. The 2004 report looks at the continuation of that atmosphere, which lasted through numerous anti-lesbian and gay state ballot initiatives, a Presidential call for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the demonization of lesbians and gay men in particular in the 2004 election cycle.
Frankly, given that so many of our members are managing tremendous and sustained increases in caseloads at the same time that they’re seeing local, state and federal resources diminish we find it astounding that the commitment of local anti-violence programs compels them to continue to keep their doors open, continue to keep their hotlines staffed and continue to be there when our communities are clearly so desperately in need; after all, this report is merely a picture of what the damage looks like on the ground when war is declared on a community by some of the most powerful forces in our nation,” concluded Patton.
PDF versions of the 2004 Report, its Executive Summary, and previous editions of NCAVP’s reports on hate-motivated and domestic violence are available at www.ncavp.org and www.avp.org.
For additional or regional contact information, call 212-714-1184, x22.
Selected Illustrations from the 2004 Report on Anti-LGBT Hate Violence:
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) addresses the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and HIV-positive communities. NCAVP is a coalition of programs that document and advocate for victims of anti-LGBT and anti-HIV/AIDS violence/harassment, domestic violence, sexual assault, police misconduct and other forms of victimization. NCAVP is dedicated to creating a national response to the violence plaguing these communities. Further, NCAVP supports existing anti-violence organizations and emerging local programs in their efforts to document and prevent such violence.
