Some things haven't gotten better. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects, hate crimes against LGBT people in 2010 were the second highest they've been since tracking began in 1996. Statistics and details after the jump.
Last year's homicide count reached 27, and of those killed, 70% were minorities and a grossly disproportionate 44% were transgender women. Even more disturbing, the data shows that the attacks also show a higher level of brutality.
Members of the coalition have often had to fight to get crimes recognized as biased. Jake Finney Jake Finney, project manager with the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, said among those was the case of a transgender man who was attending a Los Angeles area university and was attacked in a campus bathroom.
“The attacker used a sharp instrument to carve the word ‘It’ in the victim’s chest, and campus police were not clear that the word 'It' was a slur and indicated anti-transgender bias,” Finney said. “It took a great deal of advocacy to have them classify that incident as a hate crime."
One of the easiest ways to pinpoint a hate-crime are the slurs being used during the attack. Think about that next time you expect GLAAD to take it easy on comedians and public personalities. Words empower people to take action. And because of those harmful words we lost 27 people in our community to brutal attacks last year.
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