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Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes Report for 2003 Released by NCAVP Murders in Locations Reported: 10 in 2002 Rising to 18 in 2003 Increases Follow the Sodomy Ruling and the Marriage Debate The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs |
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Overall, NCAVP's report noted an 8% increase in reported incidents of anti-LGBT violence. Included in that 8% increase for the year, was an 80% increase in anti-LGBT murders, which rose in the reporting locations from 10 in 2002 to 18 in 2003. At the same time, the total number of victims rose 9%, from 2,183 in 2002 to 2,384 in 2003. Of the eleven locations included in the report, seven reported increases. And in what the report's authors noted as a significant departure from previous editions of the report, the number of offenders rose 18%, from 2,793 to 3,282. "For the past several years the number of people perpetrating anti-LGBT violence decreased, and 2003 marked the reversal of that trend; unfortunately, we have begun to lose ground," said Clarence Patton, NCAVP's Acting Executive Director. The report also makes an in-depth exploration of the connections between the rise in anti-LGBT violence - particularly in the last half of 2003 when compared to the same period in the previous year and the greatly increased visibility of and controversy surrounding the LGBT community during the year. "In the first half of the year, the increase in anti-LGBT violence was 3% centered in five locations. However, from July to December, that increase had jumped to 26% and spread to include two additional regions," continued Patton. Additional information in the report notes a possible "Eye of the Storm" effect for locations at the center of LGBT controversy or attention that involves a temporary depression of anti-LGBT violence during the height of that attention followed by a spike after the spotlight has moved. For instance, while Massachusetts showed an overall decrease of 38% in incidents for the year, and a 36% decrease for the year's second half, that decline slowed to 9% over the same period in the previous year as anti-LGBT violence in that state began to creep up in the final quarter of 2003 as attention moved from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decisions specifically, to the broader discussion of same-sex marriage as a national issue. Preliminary information from San Francisco for the first quarter of 2004 hints at a similar depression in anti-LGBT incidents while that city was at the center of the same-sex marriage debate when its Mayor instructed municipal employees to begin marrying same-sex couples. |
Rodney Velázquez was murdered during a hate crime in 2002. For more information on this case, click to the New York Anti-Violence Coalition at