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says Anti-Violence Group
New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project
 New York, New York--Representatives from the New York City Gay and Lesbian
Anti-Violence Project (AVP) believe that three incidents of
anti-gay violence over the past weekend exemplify a trend that the city's
lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual communities have been
experiencing since early this summer. The three incidents - two
involving physical assault, and one in which the victims were threatened
with a knife -- all occurred in Manhattan on Friday and Saturday.
"While attention has been rightfully paid to the recent horrible racist attacks on Staten Island, we think it's important to note that the issue of hate crimes is much larger than racial and religious hate and that all of our communities need to work together to stop this blight on our city," said Richard Haymes, AVP's Executive Director. "Unfortunately, in terms of hate incidents, the summer months were particularly difficult for the city's lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual community," continued Haymes. "Reporting and incidents especially seemed to pick up after the (U.S. Supreme Court's) Lawrence v. Texas decision." According to Clarence Patton, AVP's Director of Community Organizing and Public Advocacy: "In general, reports of hate incidents to AVP tend to rise 8% in July as people respond to our outreach encouraging them to make reports at Pride events in June. They also rise to some degree because of greater targeting of the community during those events…This year, July's reports of hate incidents to AVP rose an astounding 52%, and similar trends have been seen in other cities, such as Detroit and Toronto," Patton reported. AVP's Executive Director said: "At the rally in the West Village celebrating the Supreme Court decision, I noted that we should ready ourselves as a community for the response of bigots against our greater freedom and visibility," Clearly, we are in the midst of that response. "Additionally, we are well aware of the fact that our expanded visibility goes beyond the Supreme Court decision. Shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Boy Meets Boy have risen to the top of the ratings and while they further 'normalize' gays for many Americans, they also stir the wrath of those who hate us. Further, environmental stressors such as the poor economy, 9/11 post-traumatic stress, and war in Iraq can also cause the level of hate violence to rise." AVP Executive Director Haymes concluded: "To continuing addressing this issue, we hope to work with both the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force and leaders from other communities experiencing hate-motivated violence to not only respond to each incident, but also develop strategies to discourage people - particularly young people - from committing these crimes." |