Angie Zapata: Two years after her death, LGBTQ murders at second-highest rate in

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Angie Zapata: Two years after her death, LGBTQ murders at second-highest rate in a decade
Denver Westword
By Melanie Asmar
13 July, 2010


http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/07/angie_zapata_saturday_will_mar.php


Saturday will mark two years since transgender Greeley teen Angie Zapata was beaten to death by a man she met on the Internet. Zapata's killer, Allen Andrade, was found guilty of murder; the jury also convicted him of a hate crime.

Zapata isn't alone. In 2009, twenty-two LGBTQ people were murdered, according to a report released today. Of those, 79 percent were minorities and most were transgender women.

LGBTQ murders are at the second-highest rate in a decade, says the report, which was released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. But overall, hate violence dropped slightly in 2009. Advocates attribute that dip to a decrease in reporting -- not in violence itself.