Hate Crime Stats
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Hate Crimes Statistics for 2006, anti-LGB crimes increased by an alarming 18% over the preceding year. The FBI report documented 1,195 incidents in which the perpetrators’ motivating factor was the victims’ actual or perceived sexual orientation.
Hate crimes against LGB people account for 16% of all hate crimes in the United States.
By statute, hate crimes against transgender persons are not recorded in the FBI report, so these statistics themselves are an expression of homophobic policy and procedure. Additionally, many hate crimes are under-reported, or inappropriately qualified as suicides or non-hate related events. The statistics, then, ignore many incidents that should rightly be counted as hate crimes against LGBT persons. These deflated numbers themselves contribute to the invisibility of LGBT tragedies in America.
If this were not bad enough, the NCAVP 2008 Report on Anti-LGBTQ Hate Crimes shows a whopping 24% increase in 2007 over 2006. In 2007, there were 2,430 victims.
The following cities and regions showed increases of 100%, or more, when it comes to violent anti-LGBTQ incidents:
Los Angeles – 100%
Minnesota – 135%
Kansas City – 142%
Michigan – 207%
In 2008 we are seeing evidence of a chilling new dimension to the slow slaughter of LGBT people: the victimization of LGBT youths, now being targeted as much for how they present gender as for their sexual orientation. The case of 18-year-old Adolphus Simmons is just one example. On January 21, 2008, Simmons was shot to death while carrying out his trash in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Law & Order
Appropriate justice in anti-gay hate crimes remains an elusive prospect. Lesser charges and reduced sentences for hate crime perpetrators point to a legal system that refuses to recognize the full humanity of the victims. Because the victims are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the murders are regarded as less offensive in the eyes of courts, judges, and juries in many communities. Read More…
The Media and Hate Crimes
Media coverage of these outrages has been poor. The average American does not believe that anyone has been killed for being gay since the murder of Matthew Shepard. After the flurry of interest waned following Shepard’s murder in 1998, the killings of LGBT people have been buried in the back pages of newspapers or not reported at all in the national press. Read More…
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About
If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBT hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation. LGBT people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling holocaust of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBT persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBT population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBT people is a cruel dream.
Our Project Director
Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBT person to be tenured there. Read More…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…
Contact Us
Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team: UnfinishedLives@yahoo.com
Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
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- Ohio Episcopalians to Bless Same-Sex Unions
- Sometimes Freud Was Right
- Catholic Cardinals around the country funded Maine’s Yes on 1 Campaign
- Australian Capital enacts civil unions, again
- NY Senate marriage vote within 50 days
- Nigerian calls on Anglican Communion to oppose Ugandan “Kill Gays” bill
- Dan Savage On Defining the Institution of Marriage
- Ft. Worth Adds Transgenders to Non-Discrimination Ordinance
- The LGBT Hate Crimes Project
- HRC Back Story
- BREAKING: LDS church supports inclusive anti-discrimination law
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- National Adoption Month: Finding a Friendly Agency
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- New York Marriage Vote Update
- Celebrate National Adoption Month with HRC’s Family Project
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- NY Times Profiles DP Benefit Tax Provision in House Health Reform Bill
- New Rand Corp Study on DADT
- The Advocate: Daily News
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- Mormon church supports pro-gay laws. Sorta.
- Fort Worth approves transgender protections
- LGBT protesters, anti-gay counterprotesters clash outside Fort Worth City Hall
- FW Council WILL vote on trans inclusion in ordinance
- Brown endorses Parker in Houston mayor’s race
- A tale of two opinion pages: The Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News
- More on the AMA
This is horrible news, but very useful to me in my nudging, cajoling and debating my local UCC Church Board into understanding why becoming an Open & Accepting congregation MATTERS GREATLY.
Thank you for putting this blog together and for the work that you do!
Dave Cope
Quiet Corner, CT