Survey Shows 4% Rise in Anti-Gay Violence, Harassment in U.S.

An annual survey conducted by a national gay-rights group shows a 4% rise in anti-gay violence and harassment in cities across the country, while a study of more than 900 gays and lesbians in Los Angeles indicates that about a quarter of them have been physically abused because of their sexual orientation.

According to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force survey, anti-gay incidents reported to gay agencies in five cities increased to a total of 1,898 in 1992, compared to 1,822 the year before. In the last five years, the number of incidents tracked by the task force has risen 172%.

“The key message we have is that gay and lesbian visibility and power are increasing in society. However, we are experiencing a violent backlash against that growing visibility,” task force spokesman Robert Bray said.

The task force gathers its figures from San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, New York and Minneapolis-St.Paul, based on incident reports to gay advocacy groups in those cities. The numbers are much higher than reflected in official police reports, a discrepancy that the task force attributes to reluctance by gay and lesbian victims to report incidents to authorities.

“They don’t want their names on a police blotter or on the evening news because they feel they’ll lose their jobs,” Bray said.

In other information released Wednesday by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, the number of physical assault incidents reported to the center declined to 57 last year, from 78 in 1991. Center officials speculated that the drop stemmed from the fact that--unlike previous years--no money was spent publicizing the center’s anti-violence project or hot line.

In another survey conducted by the center at the 1992 Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival in Los Angeles, 28% of those questioned said they had been the victims of physical abuse in the past year because of their sexual orientation.

In results released Wednesday, half of the 914 men and women surveyed said they had been verbally harassed because they are gay. And 73% reported that the possibility of anti-gay abuse had prompted them to change their behavior--by being more cautious or refraining from going out alone at night or from showing affection to a partner in public.

Most of those incidents went unreported to authorities, either because the victim thought them too trivial, did not perceive them as crimes or thought police would ignore the complaints.

Bray and center director Lorri L. Jean said the national controversy over allowing gays in the military and last year’s anti-gay initiatives in Oregon and Colorado had created a climate fostering violence against homosexuals.

“When you permit hate to happen, violence follows,” Jean said, adding that the center last month had received a bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the building. She also said the staff has gotten an increased number of threatening phone calls.

Similarly, Bray said the office of a gay group in Washington, D.C., had been called by people threatening the life of President Clinton, who has said that he plans to lift the Pentagon’s ban on homosexuals in the military.

Although the overall rise in anti-gay incidents was relatively modest, there were substantial jumps in various categories. The task force reported that anti-gay homicides rose from eight to 12 last year, that threats of violence and physical menacing climbed from 146 to 350 and that verbal harassment episodes rose from 875 to 1,153. At the same time, reports of abuse by police dropped 5%.

The task force report contends that the campaigns for the Colorado and Oregon ballot propositions spurred anti-gay violence in those two states. A Portland agency took reports of 968 incidents, more than any other gay agency in the country, Bray said. In Denver, gay-rights advocates reported 204 incidents, with 40% of them recorded after the November passage of a referendum barring the adoption of gay-rights laws. The Oregon measure, which was much stronger, failed.

Violence Against Gays A study by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has shown a rise in anti-gay incidents, including physical assaults and verbal harassment, in New York, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and San Francisco over the past five years. These figures are based on reports to local victim-assistance agencies.

YEAR INCIDENTS 1988 697 1989 949 1990 1,389 1991 1,822 1992 1,898

Source: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Washington D.C.