USA TODAY International Edition
LGBTQ community suffers worst year
Even without the Pulse nightclub attack, hate killings rose 17% last year, coalition finds
The gruesome attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando a year ago was the worst mass shooting in U. S. history. Yet even without those 49 victims, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for the LGBTQ community, according to a report released Monday by the National Coalition of Anti- Violence Programs ( NCAVP).
Outside of the lives lost at Pulse nightclub, the NCAVP found a 17% increase in hate killings from the previous year. The group collected data on 1,036 incidents of hate violence from 12 local NCAVP member organizations in 11 states for its 20th annual report, “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV- Affected Hate Violence in 2016.”
“I think with increased visibility comes increased vulnerability,” said Shelby Chestnut, director of community organizing and public advocacy at the New York City Anti- Violence Project.
In the U. S., gay marriage had been set as a benchmark for equality. But advocates say the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2015 — which made same- sex marriage a legal right — was never a measure of societal or cultural acceptance of the LGBTQ community. It was never a guarantee their lives were safe. “We’re not sending clear messages that LGBTQ lives are valued,” Chestnut said.
Trans people, especially trans women of color, are especially vulnerable. They have the least access to resources, to housing, to jobs and to medical care. Transgender people in the U. S. are nearly four times as likely to be living in extreme poverty, according to the 2011 National Transgender Discrimination Survey.
The NCAVP said in 2016 it tracked 21 homicides of transgender and gender- non- conforming people. In 2017 so far, it has tracked 12, and 10 of them have been transgender women of color.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC), people who identify as LGBTQ experience sexual violence at rates equal to or higher than heterosexuals. Half of transgender people and half of bisexual women will experience sexual violence at some point.
Forty- four percent of lesbians and 61% of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, and/ or stalking by an intimate partner, compared with 35% of heterosexual women. Twenty- six percent of gay men and 37% of bisexual men experience rape, physical violence and/ or stalking by an intimate partner, compared with 29% of heterosexual men.
And existing statistics likely don’t reveal how pervasive sexual violence is in the LGBTQ community, said Beth Hamilton, associate director at the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence. Sexual assault is a notoriously under- reported crime, and advocates suspect the rates of reporting are even lower for LGBTQ survivors.
“Folks feel like, well, we’re already stigmatized, and people already think a certain thing of us, so putting that out there for the world to see is not something that feels good,” Hamilton said.
LGBTQ sexual assault survivors also face barriers in accessing and receiving support from service providers. A 2015 report from the NCAVP found nearly half of LGBTQ survivors who had experienced intimate partner violence and tried to access an emergency shelter had been turned away.
Despite the daunting statistics that show violence against the LGBTQ community is on the rise, Chesnut said there is something she finds encouraging: More and more people are reaching out to the organization asking how they can help and intervene on behalf of LGBTQ people.
“People are dying as a result of anti- LGBT violence almost daily in this country, and it is everyone’s problem,” Chestnut said.
“People are dying as a result of anti- LGBT violence almost daily in this country, and it is everyone’s problem.”
Shelby Chestnut, director of community organizing and public advocacy at the New York City Anti- Violence Project