Hate Crimes Against Gays and Minorities

HATE CRIMES AGAINST GAYS AND MINORITIES

Hate crime is a form of interpersonal affecting the health and safety of vulnerable populations in the United States. Hate crimes are criminal offenses based on the offender's bias toward individuals, families, groups, organizations, or society that are motivated, in whole or part by the offender's bias against race, sexual orientation, disability status, or ethnicity/national origin (Barnes & Epross, 1994). Hate crime offenses include intimidation, simple assault, aggravated assault, rape or murder. Homosexuality is accepted more today; nonetheless, there are still a number of hate crimes being committed against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Gay men are victims of hate crimes. For instance, on July 3, 2000, Arthur "J.R." Warren was punched and kicked to death in Grant Town, West Virginia by two teenage boys who reportedly believed Warren had spread a rumor that he and one of the boys, David Allen Parker, had a sexual relationship. Warren's killers ran over his body to disguise the murder as a hit and run. For the past decade, because of sexual orientation, lesbians and gay men have been consistently the third most frequent target of hate violence, and this has not heightened only fear, but also a sense of insecurity among the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community. Barnes and Ephross found that perpetrators of hate crime attacks used a variety of harm tactics, including physical assault, harassment, mail or telephone threats, symbols or slogans of hatred, on or near property, attacks on homes and other acts of vandalism, and false fire alarms, possible hate attacks (robberies, attempted robberies) and alleged attacks by police. The LGBT community are being targeted because of their sexual preferences and because of their homophobia (the violent component of "gay bashing") or transphobia (violent "gay bashing"). These hate crimes are usually caused by cultural, religious or political views. Homosexuality is condemned by these "pure" society members and is viewed as weak, ill, feminine and morally

HATE CRIMES AGAINST GAYS AND MINORITIES

wrong. This type of violence can be psychological and physical, and may usually end with catastrophic consequences for the victims.

"Hate crime" was only officially named by the U.S. judicial system in1990. The Hate Crime Statistics Act [Title 28, Section 534, Public Law 101-275, April 23, 1990, U. S. Code], a creation of the 101st Congress, provided the first standard legal definition (U.S. Congress, 1990). This legislation recognized hate crimes as a serious problem in the United States with consequences for victims and society However, limited research exists to ascertain hate crime's true prevalence and full consequences (Willis,2008).

The date of passage of the first hate crime statute is debatable, since some of the state civil rights statutes passed in the 1960s and 1970s could be regarded as hate crime laws, and since there are numerous definitions of hate crime. According to some experts, the first state hate crime statutes were passed into law in 1981. Since then, the federal government and all but one state have passed pieces of legislation addressing hate crime in some way. One case of significant importance which brought wide publicity which focused attention to the brutality of hate crime against gays the murder of Matthew Shepard on October 12, 1998. Sheppard was robbed, pistol whipped and tortured, and left hanging grotesquely from a fence. Almost immediately Shepard became a secular saint, and his killing became a kind of gay-passion play- where he suffered and died for the cause of homosexuality against the growing homophobia and hatred of gay America. A Mathew Shepard industry grew rapidly with plays and foundations along with state and even national hate crimes legislation named for him. In reaction to the prevalence and seriousness of hate crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and communities, citizens

HATE CRIMES AGAINST GAYS AND MINORITIES

and advocacy groups have placed pressure on the federal government, as well as state and local governments to view violence motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity as social pandemic that warranted a legislative response. The Mathew Shepard Act was the first piece of legislation which aimed to expand the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation and gender identity to pass through both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

Another significant piece of legislation which was passed regarding hate crimes against minorities is the "James Byrd Hate Crimes Act." Briefly, on June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr. a black man, was dragged to his death in Jasper County, Texas. The manner in which Byrd was killed (his head was severed and his body was left alongside the road) was so gruesome, it became one of the nation's most heinous and notorious hate crime killings to date. Individuals are discriminated against as a result of their race, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity. After the passage of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act, these offenses were given harsher punishment if the prosecution is able to prove without a doubt that the offense was indeed committed as a result of one of these biases or prejudices. Both of these acts were signed into law by President Obama in October 2009. Specifically both acts expanded the definition of hate crimes to include people with disabilities, lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, but it also gave local law enforcement more tools and money at their disposal. The bill also allows

the FBI authority to investigate violent hate crimes, including violence directed at the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.

Blacks were the group most likely to be the targets of race-based hate crimes, according to a new federal report. The report, compiled by the FBI's civil rights division, found bias crimes HATE CRIMES AGAINST GAYS AND MINORITIES were motivated by "anti-black bias." Latinos were the targets of 66 percent of all hate crimes motivated by ethnicity or national origin. Jews were the targets of most crimes against religious groups, and most crimes against a particular sexual orientation or gender were motivated by "anti-homosexual male bias." (FBI. 2009).

The initial piece of Federal legislation regarding hate crimes, the Hate Crime Sentencing

Enhancement Act (HCSEA), was passed in 1994. This statute increased