Human Rights First : 2008 US Violent Hate Crimes against LGBT Increasing

By Kelli Busey
Sat. Oct 18, 2008
planetransgender

According to a recently released report from Human rights first, violent attacks on people because of sexual preference and gender identity have increased in 2007.

Government statistic's do not report all incidences according to The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) nor differentiate between violence targeting people for their gender identity and sexual orientation in the United States.

Non governmental sources, the only reliable and comprehensive record keeper, indicate that crimes targeting gender identity has increased the most.
Due to the horrific nature of the crimes, usually murder these deaths receive a heavy dose of sensationalistic self promotional commercialization from some unscrupulous mainstream and LGBT media. It is usually the outrage of bloggers that the media has begun recently to consider the consequences of irresponsible reporting.

It is important to note that in 2007 area's with recently defeated anti bias laws saw a increase of violent incidents and areas that saw an enactment of protective laws, a marked decrease.

Those regions included: Minnesota (+85, 135%)which denotes a correlation between the time hate crimes bills were being considered and the increase of violence after the defeat of the bill.

Michigan (+201, 207%) with more than double the number of reported violent incidents in 2007. This is an increase of 133%. Michigan passed a constitutional amendment in 2004 that bans gay marriage,

Kansas City (+17, 142%).

Other regions reporting increased numbers of victims in 2007 over 2006 include San Francisco (+24, 7%) and Pennsylvania(+10, 28%).

Regions reporting decreases in numbers of victims in 2007(Both which enacted gender protective laws) include New York City with 82 fewer victims than in 2006 (-14%) and Colorado (-27%), which received 45 fewer reports.

There is no way to estimate the worldwide suffering caused by the Human Rights Campaign(HRC) and Congressman Barney Frank when they so publicly and inexplicitly removed inclusion of transgender people from the national GLBT human rights movement HR2015 (ENDA), a bill which had no chance of passage.

In an unanticipated backlash to this transphobic behaviour cities, counties and states have moved to enact gender protective laws. Most cities are experiencing protests of HRC by a coalition of disenfranshised, when HRC has subsequently meets to raise 20 million dollars annually at fundraisers while proclaiming to be a advocate for transgender people.

The tentacles of this massive entity extend into religion and respected local LGBT groups as they become inebriated by the availability of funds and make commitments way beyond their means.

It is this current situation that leads some transgender and queer to wonder, what does HRC, lesbian and gays have to motivate it to seriously commit to a inclusive ENDA?