Agency Reports 93 Hate Crimes Against Gays in 7 Months

More than 90 hate crimes against gays and lesbians in Los Angeles County were reported between February and the end of August, a slight increase over the number of such offenses committed during a comparable period last year, the county’s leading gay services agency announced Monday.

The Anti-Violence Project of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center logged 93 hate crimes between Feb. 1 and Aug. 31, said the center’s legal services director, Roger Coggan. Last year, Coggan said, the center recorded 90 hate crimes between Feb. 16 and Sept. 30.

The center recorded 18 reports of hate crimes in August, Coggan said, a 50% increase over this year’s monthly average of 12.

“It is a basic fact that bigotry against gay and lesbians is the last accepted form of bigotry,” said David M. Smith, a spokesman for the center.

The center’s 1990 hate crime statistics--scheduled to be released to the public today--were dramatically greater than those compiled by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, which recently issued a hate crimes report for the first six months of the year.

The Human Relations Commission report said that 50 hate crimes were committed against gays during the first half of 1990.

“We work with the center,” said Eugene Mornell, director of the Human Relations Commission. “But they look at hate crimes a little differently. We use a more stringent standard. With many of the agencies we work with--and this includes law enforcement agencies--we reduce the number. Unless (a hate crime) involves a clear violation of a law, we don’t include it in our figures.”

Some of the center’s figures include actions that may not be legal offenses. For instance, the center recorded 70 incidents in which anti-gay and anti-lesbian slurs were uttered.