LGBT minorities more often targeted in hate crimes

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, a large number of the victims at the Pulse gay club were reported to be LGBT minorities– that is, people of color, transgender, or women.

This isn’t surprising, said the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), as “people of color and transgender and gender nonconforming people made up the majority of victims of hate violence” in the past years.

Hate crimes targeting LGBT minorities

In their recent report documenting hate crimes in 2015, the NCAVP said that in the LGBT community, “risk of hate violence often increases for those who hold multiple marginalized identities.”

The group further pointed out that “anti-LGBTQ hate violence can no longer be viewed in isolation from other forms of bias-motivated violence that our community members are experiencing based on their identities.”

“There is no single narrative of an LGBTQ hate violence survivor. We need a full picture of what hate violence looks like for our communities if we are going to effectively address it,” Essex Lordes at Communities United Against Violence in San Francisco said.

Data on violence against LGBT minorities

According to the NCAVP report, there were 24 reported hate violence homicides of LGBTQ people in 2015, of which 62 percent were people of color. This includes twelve people who were black and three Latinos.

Meanwhile, 67 percent of the 24 reported homicides were transgender and gender non-conforming people while 54 percent were transgender women of color.

“An overwhelming majority of the community members we lost to violence this year were LGBTQ people of color, especially transgender and gender-nonconforming people of color,” said Leah Taraskiewicz of Equality Michigan.

“None of us are immune to this crisis of brutality and violence that’s rooted in racism, homophobia, and transphobia,” Taraskiewicz said.

Addressing violence against LGBT minorities

The NCAVP recommended the need for comprehensive policies that would protect all LGBTQ in their schools, workplaces, and houses.

What’s more, the group expressed concern over the recent anti-LGBT laws being passed.

“Hate violence, including bias, discrimination, criminalization of our communities, and the presumption that violence against LGBTQ people is somehow permissible, is being written into our laws at an alarming rate,” said Beverly Tillery of the New York City Anti-Violence Project.

“Now is the time to hold our institutions and policy makers accountable. We cannot allow the codifying of violence against our communities through harmful legislation,” Tillery said.

“We need to shift our cultural understanding of hate violence away from thinking that it’s random and rare,” Emily Waters, also of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, said, “and recognize that violence against LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities is a consequence of homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia that permeates our everyday environments and relationships.”