Attacks, Bias Against Gays on Upswing, Survey Finds

Fueled by fear of AIDS, reported attacks and harassment against gays increased dramatically last year to a new high of more than 7,000 cases nationwide, and California reported the most assaults, the nation’s largest gay and lesbian rights group said Tuesday in reporting on a study of the problem.

“Right now, we are a community under siege. We’re battling AIDS and we’re battling another epidemic--violence against gays,” said Kevin Berrill of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which compiled local statistics on assaults and harassment incidents for its analysis.

The task force’s report underscored concern over anti-gay discrimination voiced last week by the head of the President’s AIDS commission. Legislation pending in the Senate would have the Justice Department track so-called “hate crimes” and direct more attention to them.

Data From 32 States

Gay rights groups in 32 states that participated in the survey reported 7,008 incidents of violence or harassment last year in which anti-gay prejudice appeared to be a “motivating factor,” the report said. That compared with 4,946 such cases in 1986. The group began its annual survey in 1985.

North Carolina reported the most incidents, 1,985, followed by California with 561, but California’s report of 317 assaults was the most in that category. (Part of the disparity in state totals may be attributable to differences in reporting methods, particularly in cases of verbal harassment.)

In Los Angeles, task force officials said, gays reported 126 harassment incidents that included two homicides, 74 assaults and two bomb threats.

Assaults are a “serious problem” for gays in Los Angeles, said Tom Coleman Jr. of the city’s Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. He said that recent awareness and law enforcement programs established by the Legislature and city police have brought more attention to these crimes.

William D. Booth of the Los Angeles Police Department said: “Statistically, I’d have to say that (attacks on gays) are not a tremendous problem, but philosophically, that is enormously offensive. It’s something that won’t be tolerated.”

Fatal Attacks Cited

The attacks cited in the report included the fatal shooting in February of a homosexual man outside a gay bar in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, a white-supremacist attack on a gay bookstore in Shelby, N.C., in which three men were shot to death, and the fatal stabbing of a man in San Francisco whom the assailant had called a “faggot.”

Because gays are often wary of reporting incidents of discrimination, Berrill said, the study’s documented cases represent “just the tip of the iceberg” of anti-gay harassment.

“There is no escaping the conclusion that anti-gay violence is a widespread problem. . . and AIDS has fanned the flames of anti-gay prejudice. It’s legitimized it,” he said.

Berrill cited a Justice Department-sponsored study last fall on “hate crimes” which concluded that “homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims of hate violence today.” Of the incidents of violence and harassment counted in the gay group’s report, 15% included verbal references to AIDS or were directed against people who have the deadly disease.

Federal Action Sought

Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said in a prepared statement that the task force’s report “demonstrates the fact that our society faces a serious problem with the occurrence of hate crimes. . . . We cannot continue to tolerate this situation.”

Cranston has sponsored legislation in the Senate that would direct the Justice Department to compile national statistics on “hate crimes” based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation so that local police would be able to identify trouble spots. The measure has already passed the House.