Report Shows 53% Rise in Anti-Gay Hate Crimes in L.A. : Violence: The group compiling the statistics says the increase reflects, in part, a greater effort to collect information. Such incidents have been on the rise since 1990.

The number of reported anti-gay incidents rose substantially in metropolitan Los Angeles last year, according to a national report that ranks the city second in the nation in the number of hate crimes against gay men and lesbians.

There were 332 incidents--ranging from harassment to murder--reported to the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in 1994, a 53% increase over the previous year. Only New York, with 632 episodes, recorded more.

Nationally, the number of reported anti-gay hate crimes rose as well, but by the much smaller margin of 1.6%.

Officials at the Los Angeles center said the regional increase was partly a result of greater efforts to collect information on gay bashing. In 1994, the center for the first time ran a fully staffed anti-violence project all year long, with trained volunteers answering an anti-violence hot line.

“When you have the mechanism in place you find that there are more hate crimes than you thought before,” said Sharen Shaw Johnson, director of the center’s anti-violence project. “But I think we have to look beyond that too.”

Citing support for Proposition 187, the anti-illegal immigration initiative that won strong voter support last year, Johnson maintained that there is a growing climate of intolerance in the city--”the same kind of intolerance that’s going to make it more acceptable for a group of youths to bash a gay person,” she said.

The local rise in anti-gay incidents reflects a general trend since 1990. In 1993, gay men for the first time became the leading target of hate crimes in Los Angeles County.

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The one Los Angeles-area murder cited in the report was that of Jon Simmons, a gay activist from Chicago who was found dead in Beverly Hills last October. He had been shot in the back of the head. The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office says the homicide is still under investigation and has not yet officially been classified as a hate crime.

Of the 332 gay-bashing incidents recorded by the center, 166 involved harassment, 99 involved physical assaults or thrown objects, and 68 consisted of threats or menacing behavior. Lesbians were the victims in 30% of the episodes, mirroring national statistics.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Carla Arranaga of the hate crimes unit said that she is aware of nine gay-bashing cases in which felony charges were filed last year. All involve assaults, including one attempted murder. She had no figures on misdemeanor complaints or those against juveniles.

The disparity between the number of incidents recorded by the center and felony prosecutions can be attributed to several factors, Arranaga said. Victims who call the center do not necessarily report the incidents to police, or they may report a robbery or assault and omit their assailant’s reference to sexual orientation.

Scheduled for release today, the national report, called “Anti-Gay/Lesbian Violence in 1994,” consists of figures collected by gay service agencies around the country. San Francisco reported the third-highest number of incidents, 324.