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Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people have long been victims of hate. Before the Stonewall Riots of 1969, gay people were arrested even for being in gay bars. The police intimidated gay people endlessly, and coming out of the closet could mean finding oneself being sent to an asylum. Until around 1973, the APA considered being gay as a psychological disorder, meaning that gay people were considered insane. Thus, gay people were subjected to such treatments as shock therapy and other corrected therapies. Some were quite cruel and created extremely negative reactions to images of people of the same gender. Stonewall sparked a move in the right direction, but hatred for LGBT people is still felt today, 40 years later. Even today, LGBT people are killed or imprisoned in many nations around the world, especially in Islamic strongholds like Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Yet, even in these societies, there are gay people who risk everything for love. Imprisonment and capital punishment for LGBT people on the basis of sexual orientation is arguably a hate crime in itself. I even stumbled across an eye opening article where a Muslim talks about it. He says that there's a collapse in morality around the world, and that's just the beginning of his spiel. http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.canada/2005-09/msg00250.html If this is the mainstream of Muslim teaching, it's no wonder that LGBT people feel the worst persecution in the Islamic world. Even in Iraq, there is a squad that has been killing LGBT people. The preferred method in the Islamic is stoning people to death. In their blind hatred for LGBT, they kill in the name of Allah. This hatred is not limited to The Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa. It has extended to Europe and North America where hate crimes, including murder, have been committed by Muslims upon LGBT people. Muslims are not the only ones who have perpetrated hate crimes against gay people. People from other religions, or lack thereof, have also committed such crimes for various reasons. One such situation occurred in Laramie, Wyoming on January, 6-7, 1998. A University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten by two homophobic men who had offered him a ride. According to the felony complaint against Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, they tied him up to a post, robbed him, and beat him repeatedly with a pistol. Source: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/shepard1.html This crime made national headlines, because of the excessive brutality of the crime itself. Many assume that it has more to do with Matthew Shepard's looks, but that, to me, is not the reason it made headlines. The crime itself was brutal. While the state contended that the intention was robbery, it is quite obvious to most that it was, in fact, a hate crime. Robbing the victim was an added bonus. A bill in honor of Matthew Shepard is still pending and will likely be signed by President Barack Obama. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard#Hate_crime_legislation A gay teen named Lawrence

Hate crime is defined as "any of various crimes (as assault or defacement of property) when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (as one based on color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation)." This is according to Merriam Webster. Thus, it can include cross burnings, spray painting epithets on someone's home or other property, assault, or even murder. What's more is that these crimes are actually increasing, or at least the reporting of hate crimes is on the rise according to This means that it's difficult to determine if the crimes themselves are increasing in numbers in the US. My goal is to inform everyone of this issue. As many people on GA are gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc. we are at higher risk of being victims of hate crimes. Most of us may have the false impression that gay men are the most likely victims of hate crimes. However, according to the FBI website, there are more reports of hate crimes against African Americans than all hate crimes based upon sexual orientation combined. In 2007, there were 2,658 hate crimes against African Americans compared to 772 crimes against homosexual males. Jews appear to be second with 969 crimes. Of the remaining crimes, whites are the second highest for racially motivated crimes with 749 crimes, a number very similar to the number of gay men who are victims of such crimes. Thus, in our fight to curb crimes based on hate, we cannot focus solely on crimes against sexual orientation minorities. The numbers of racially motivated hate crimes are too high to ignore. Future blogs on this topic will include: hate crimes against African Americans, hate crimes against Jews, hate crimes against GLBT people, and hate crimes against white people. I am of the belief that knowledge is power. The more we know about hate crimes, the more we can do to stop them. Through education and strong advocation, we can make a difference. If anyone knows of any specific hate crimes that they feel is necessary for one of these future blogs, please feel free to contact me via the PM system.