Just when you think we’re on an up-swing, a statistic like this is released. Despite some recent victories in the fight for gay rights, violent hate crimes against LGBT people have actually risen in the past year. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, these are crimes that committed against people because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or HIV positive status.
In the report (Hate Violence against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the U.S. in 2010) these numbers have gone up 13% last year over 2009. Of those crimes, 27 were murders, which is a startling increase from the previous year’s count of 22, and the second-highest total since tracking began in 1996.
The report showed that people of color and transgender people faced the harshest violence. Of the 27 reported murders committed because of LGBTQ hatred, 70% of the victims were people of color.
Transgender women were the victims in 44% of the homicide cases, with the convicted killers being predominantly white, non-transgender men.