Be Careful Out There...

If you've been paying attention to the news lately, you've probably already gotten the sense that gay violence is on the rise. Now, according to an article at 365gay.com, The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reports that gay hate-crimes have, indeed, risen significantly in 2008. And we still have almost 5 months to go yet. This is not good news but, unfortunately, not wholly unexpected either.

According to the article:

Since the February murder of 15 year-old Lawrence King and the brutal beating of Duanna Johnson, there have been at least 13 brutal and violent LGBT hate crimes throughout the country. The organization added that the reported crimes only may be a small number of the total, since many LGBT people are reluctant to go to police, and many of the attacks that are reported are not listed by authorities as hate crimes.

I, personally, have no doubt that the number is a lot higher. Clearly, many gays don't report incidences either because they're not out of the closet yet and fear being outed if they do report it, especially if their injuries weren't bad enough to require medical attention, or they feel that nothing is going to be done by the local authorities anyway so why bother?

That's unfortunate because it leaves these animals out on the streets free to continue their sick, perverted behaviors. The other aspect of not reporting is that it keeps the number of incidences lower than they should be and makes it easier for politicians and fanatics (frequently the same people) to claim that it's not a big enough problem to warrant passing or adding to hate-crime legislation. Just for these two reasons alone, I strongly urge anyone who is a victim of a hate-crime to report it.

If you are out of the closet and pissed off enough and fearless enough to weather some potential backlash, you could also report the incidence to your local news media as well. The more public exposure this issue gets, the stronger our case becomes to pass national hate-crimes legislation. However, If you do decide that you want to be that public about it but you're worried about potential consequences, you could ask them beforehand not to use your name in their media report if it isn't already a part of the public police record.

That being said and at the risk of sounding somewhat contradictory, I also caution everyone to be careful out there. As I've said in some of my past posts, the right-wing, religious fanatics are losing ground fast and they know it. They're desperate and the more desperate they become, the more violent their rhetoric and their actions become as well. However, the likelihood of something happening to you personally is still very, very low so don't let yourself become overly paranoid and fearsome about it either.

As practically every New Yorker knows instinctively, it's always smart to be aware of your surroundings and the people around you whenever you're out and about. That's a good idea for anyone - straight or gay.

To read the full story go to: 365gay.com