Anti-Gay Violence Found on Upswing in L.A. Area : Homophobia: Last year, 78 assaults were reported. Backlash is blamed on political activism.

A tumultuous year of gay political activism also produced a dramatic increase in anti-gay violence in the greater Los Angeles area, according to a study to be released today by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

Seventy-eight incidents of “gay-bashing”--physical assaults motivated by anti-gay bias--were reported to the center’s Anti-Violence Project in 1991, compared with 50 such reports in 1990 and 25 in 1989.

Roger Coggan, the center’s legal services director, predicted that the combined tally of the center’s study and still incomplete reports of hate crimes compiled by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission would show that anti-gay assaults in 1991 “outnumber all 1990 reports of racial, ethnic, national origin and religious-motivated assaults combined.”

A consultant to the county Human Relations Commission, which is expected to release its annual report on hate crimes next month, said she was not surprised by the gay center’s findings.

Among all groups victimized by hate crimes, the pattern against gays has consistently been “the most violent and vicious,” said Bunny Nightwalker-Hatcher, senior consultant to the commission.

According to the commission’s 1990 hate crime report, 143 blacks, 125 Jews and 110 gay men were victimized--but gays were more often the targets of assault.

The commissions’s statistics, Nightwalker-Hatcher said, suggested that “if you are the victim of sexual-orientation hate crime, the odds are about 8 out of 10 you will be victimized by physical assault or battery--as opposed to, say, graffiti or a cross-burning or threatening phone calls.”

Coggan attributed the 1991 increase found by the center’s study in part to a backlash against increased political activism among gays, particularly after Gov. Pete Wilson’s veto of AB 101, a bill that would have outlawed workplace discrimination against homosexuals.

“Certainly, increased gay and lesbian visibility are a part of the reason,” Coggan said. “But I also think the problem was exacerbated by political opportunism. . . .

“The veto of AB 101 sends a message that gays and lesbians are not entitled to basic government protection,” Coggan added.

“It’s a message that fans the flames of gay-bashing and bigotry. . . . We need political leadership that promotes tolerance and respect for diversity as traditional American values.”

In addition to the assaults, the gay center’s Anti-Violence Project in 1991 received 76 reports of threats of violence, 34 of harassment and 4 vandalism.

The center compiled more harassment reports in 1990, but Coggan said that statistic is misleading. “It’s such a common occurrence that most people don’t think it merits reporting in light of all the other violence,” Coggan said.