America's Leading Gay News Source
Report: Anti-LGBT murders rose 11 percent in 2011By Michael K. Lavers on May 31, 2012
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/05/31/report-anti-lgbt-murders-rose-11-percent-in-2011/
The victim of a brutal anti-gay attack underwent two surgeries in which his badly severed jaw was reattached with two permanent titanium plates. He spoke to the Blade this week on condition of anonymity. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs on Thursday reported that the number of anti-LGBT murders in 2011 rose 11 percent from the previous year.
The NCAVP's annual report documents 30 anti-LGBT homicides across the county. While it showed that incidents of anti-LGBT hate violence decreased 16 percent from 2010, the number of anti-LGBT murders in 2011 is the highest that the agency has documented since it began to issue it began to issue its annual report in 1996.
"It's definitely shocking to see the increase in the number of murders," said Hassan Naveed, vice chair of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence in the District of Columbia.
NCAVP further noted that 87 percent of the 30 anti-LGBT homicide victims in 2011 were LGBT people of color—trans women comprised 40 percent of those who lost their lives to anti-LGBT bias-motivated crimes.
Anti-violence advocates maintain a lack of housing, employment and legal protections leave trans people particularly vulnerable to bias-motived crimes.
