Still not safe

I remember feeling safe when I moved to New York last year. After all, the city was supposedly a bastion of liberalism (or at least the gay Village was, and that was never too far of a train ride away, right?), and I was moving from Cincinnati, Ohio, a place where LGBT people were specifically excluded from nondiscrimination legislation for the majority of the ’90s and ’00s. (Though I do have to add that the Task Force worked with Cincinnati activists to get us back in the nondiscrimination laws last year!)

So I’m pretty sure that I moved to Brooklyn with the assumption that things like anti-LGBT hate crimes happened only in faraway places — small towns in Alabama, maybe? My neighborhood, Park Slope, is often affectionately called “Dyke Slope.” Living in such a queer-friendly place, hate crimes were the last thing on my mind.

But reading the papers showed me that hate crimes happened all around New York and all around the country. And a few weeks ago I got a phone call from one of my gay friends. He told me he had just experienced a violent anti-LGBT hate crime inside his Brooklyn apartment complex. I was shocked. I was upset. I realized hate crimes can happen anywhere, and unfortunately, they do.

Though I’m thankful that my friend does live in New York and was able to receive help from the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, I know that not everyone has local resources like this. Not every person who’s LGBT (or even simply perceived as LGBT) has access to a citywide queer anti-violence organization, and not every LGBT person lives in a city where LGBT people are included in hate crimes legislation.

According to a survey conducted by the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, in 2005, more than 2,300 Americans reported being the victim of an anti-LGBT hate crime. (It is likely that this number is a large undercount, as only 15 metropolitan/regional areas participated in data collection. Even in areas where data was collected, many victims don’t feel comfortable reporting hate crimes.)

Of these more than 2,300 anti-LGBT hate crime victims who did file police reports, 24 percent described law enforcement’s response to them as “indifferent.” I can’t even imagine experiencing a violent physical and/or sexual assault and then receiving “indifferent” reactions from the police when I told my story.

But it happens. It happens to almost a quarter of LGBT hate crimes victims, including my friend. When he first reported his assault, the officer was very disinterested in reporting his assault as a hate crime and acted like she didn’t care that the attacker had shouted “faggot” throughout the assault. Fortunately, my friend was able to talk to another police officer, who has been a great advocate and ally in moving forward with the case as an anti-LGBT hate crime. But not everyone is so lucky, and not every jurisdiction even has sexual orientation/gender identity-inclusive hate crimes laws. (For a national map of hate crimes laws, see the Policy Institute’s hate crimes issue map.)

The fact that there are no federal hate crimes laws on the books protecting LGBT folks is unacceptable. All people deserve to be able to walk down the street, go to work, and spend time with their friends and family without having to worry about whether they’ll be attacked at random because somebody thinks they “look gay.” The passage of federal hate crimes legislation would send a message to America that hate-motivated violence is no longer acceptable, that victims will be treated with respect, and that victimizers will be held accountable.

U.S. Reps John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), have thrown their support behind the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. Both the House and Senate versions are clearly inclusive of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and trans people. (Earlier versions of the act were not trans-inclusive.)

I’m proud to work at the Task Force because the organization has been working to get the federal government to respond to hate crimes since the mid-’80s. The Task Force made it a priority to advocate for the enactment of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, and we are continuing to work on the passage of the new federal hate crimes act. (To learn more about the Task Force’s long history of working to secure hate crimes protections for our community, read our historical narrative and timeline.)

I’m looking forward to the day when the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007 goes into effect. I’m looking forward to the day when people of all sexual orientations and gender identities can feel safe — whether they’re moving to a new city, walking around their hometown or hanging out with friends and family. Federal hate crimes legislation is critical to our safety because it sends the message that LGBT people are worthy of protection from hate-motivated violence, just like everyone else.

Click here to spread the word about the federal hate crimes bill, make a donation, and lobby/fax your senators and representatives.

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