October 01, 2003

Contact: Richard Ferraro, Director of Public Relations
Phone: (646) 871-8011    Email: ferraro@glaad.org

National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs

Clarence Patton
Defining Anti-LGBTH Violence
Hate or bias-related violence is violence that is motivated wholly or in part by a perpetrator's bias toward a victim's actual or perceived difference. This difference can be based on gender, race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender identity, gender expression or disability. Though most bias-related incidents experienced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-affected (LGBTH) community range from verbal harassment and vandalism to intimidation, 41% involve some type of physical confrontation ranging from physical assault to rape and murder. Anti-LGTBH violence is often more severe than violence targeting other communities that experience bias.

Statistics on Hate Crimes
Statistics on hate violence are hard to come by. The FBI compiles statistics, but unfortunately, its data are dependent upon the willingness of local law enforcement jurisdictions to supply them with information. In 2000, the FBI recorded 1,486 instances of anti-LGBTH violence for the entire country. A more complete look at anti-LGBTH violence statistics is conducted by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), a coalition of 27 agencies serving LGBTH victims of violence. In 2000, NCAVP compiled statistics and conducted analysis on 2,135 instances of anti-LGBTH violence in just 12 locations across the country. Anti-LGBTH hate statistics only represent a small portion of the incidents experienced by LGBTH people. The information is a better reflection of victims' willingness to make reports and agencies' ability to encourage people to report than a definitive compilation of all incidents. It is believed that upwards of 50% of hate incidents are unreported.

Awareness and Visibility
Communities are often unaware of the frequency at which hate crimes occur and are surprised when they hear of a particular incident-usually a "worse case scenario" involving a brutal assault or murder-reported by the media. Increased visibility for more incidents, particularly less sensational ones, can encourage communities to develop ongoing responses such as victim services, education and advocacy. These factors can impact the prevention of hate crimes and assist survivors in ways that move beyond limited, after-the-fact legislative responses.

Remembering Our Dead

Gwen Smith
I find myself often having to answer the same query time and again: why I founded the Remembering Our Dead Project.

On the surface, I started it because I was angry. I had just heard about the 1998 death of Rita Hester in Massachusetts, and was surprised to find that two other previous murders in that state -- one of which that shared many similarities to the Hester killing -- had been largely forgotten. It made me angry that we would so quickly forget those we've lost, and that our forgetfulness may be indirectly responsible for additional losses. That anger led to the Remembering Our Dead project .

A year later, after a successful independent memorial in San Francisco, the Transgender Day of Remembrance was formed as an offshoot of the Remembering Our Dead website. This is a public memorial designed to focus on those we've lost in the previous year, focus attention on the issue of anti-transgender violence, and provide a time when the community can come together to speak out. The event has grown to become the largest multi-venue transgender event in the world.

Unfortunately, the Remembering Our Dead project remains necessary, as the issue of anti-transgender violence is not going away easily. There have been 29 reported cases of anti-transgender violence -- 14 in the United States alone -- since the brutal murder of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo. Further, there have been 159 reported cases in the decade since Brandon Teena was raped and later killed in Nebraka. More than one case reported every month, and this figure has been steadily rising in the last couple of years.

It is enough to make a person angry, and more than plenty to keep the project going.

For more information about the 5th Transgender Day of Remembrance:
http://www.REMEMberingourdead.org/day/index.html

Mano a Mano

Andrés Duque
A different type of coverage

The attack on Eddie Garz&0acute;n in Jackson Heights, Queens, on the early morning of August 15th, 2001, sent shock-waves through a large Latino LGBT community in Queens but was barely noticed by the rest of New York.  It wasn't until Edgar died three weeks later that it seemed to pick up interest from media. As the organizer of a vigil to call attention to his murder, it certainly showed me the best and worst in the way that media covers a possible hate crime.

What struck me then and continues to be a challenge is the continuing divide between the LGBT Latino community and the larger “mainstream” LGBT community. This divide made calling attention to Eddie's murder more difficult - as has sustaining interest in a crime that has yet to be resolved.

Since Eddie's death, I have grown more attuned to the murders of others in our community.  Juana Vega in Milwaukee who died of gun-shot wounds in November of 2001 and Rodney Velazquez who might have been asphyxiated before he was stabbed 43 times in the Bronx in 2002.  Their murders received scant attention, in some part because it was challenging to rally the larger GLBT community to action.

We know it takes members of a community advocating journalists cover these crimes and explaining the impact on local communities, the prevalence of hate crimes and how they affect the victims, their families, friends and communities.

We also know that these crimes are soon forgotten after the initial media attention unless communities organize and advocate for coverage of trials and the on-going impact of these incidents .  Journalists need to better understand that hate crimes often occur against GLBT people of color and that these incidents merit coverage and attention — and that the media should explore the reasons why some incidents receive more attention than others and how community issues play into our own response to hate crimes against GLBT people of color.