42% Rise in Harassment of Gays Found : Task Force Study Blames Incidents on Backlash From AIDS

Reported incidents of violence and harassment aimed at homosexuals rose 42% last year, according to a study released today that blamed an AIDS backlash as contributing to the increase.

A record 7,008 incidents, ranging from verbal abuse to murder, were reported in 1987 to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, according to Kevin Berrill, director of the task force’s Anti-Violence Project.

The statistics were compiled in the report “Anti-Gay Violence, Victimization & Defamation in 1987,” the third such study by the advocacy group.

“While our report does not claim to measure the full extent of anti-gay and lesbian harassment and violence in 1987, available data clearly demonstrate that the problem continues to be severe,” Berrill said.

“We are a community under siege,” he told a news conference. “We are battling AIDS and we’re battling violence.”

Legislation, Education

He called for federal and state legislation aimed at curbing anti-gay violence and better education of the public.

The study suggests several reasons for the increase in incidents reported, including that the task force received data from more local groups than in the prior studies.

Also, “negative attitudes toward gay people as a result of the AIDS epidemic contributed to the problem of anti-gay violence in 1987,” the report found.

Fifteen percent of all incidents reported last year and 5% of the physical assaults involved verbal reference to AIDS by the perpetrators or were directed against people with the disease, the study found. As in 1986, nearly two-thirds of the local groups reporting anti-gay incidents in 1987 believed that “fear and hatred associated with AIDS has fostered anti-gay violence in their communities,” the report said.

Berrill said the overall statistics represent a small percentage of the actual number of anti-gay incidents occurring in the United States last year.

N.Y. Leads in Homicides

Among those groups documenting greater violence last year were San Francisco’s Community United Against Violence, a gay victim assistance agency, which saw 11% more violence victims in 1987 than in 1986, the report found. The New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-violence Project served 14% more clients in 1987, and the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force reported a 39% increase in violent incidents.

New York state led all others in the number of homicides, according to the report. Of a total of 408 incidents reported in New York, 20 were homicides. Sixty-four murders were reported nationwide.

The study also highlighted federal, state and local initiatives to combat such violence, including passage of a hate crimes statistics bill by the House last month. The bill would mandate federal collection of statistics on crimes motivated by race, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity.

A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.).