Hate Crime Protection for Gays and Lesbians

Hate crime is a motivated violent act by a group or individual perpetrator towards a specific race, colour or religion (Collins, Pg 93,192). For many years, authority figures and the media have ignored hate crime offences towards individuals who identify under the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) umbrella. Up until the 20th century and prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, LGBTQ persons have been victimized in violent crimes based solely on gender identification and orientation. With a myriad of events, cases and unreported individual incidents the burden of proof towards hate crime on LQBTQ increased. The development of North American law towards LGBTQ citizens has improved throughout the last two decades. However, there

Hate Crimes: crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or religion(Federal officials, 2011). Hate crimes have been around for centuries. A hate crime is considered any malicious crime that is derived from hatred towards a certain group of people. African Americans are still victim to hate crimes, even after the Civil Rights movement. James Byrd Jr. suffered a prime example of a gruesome hate crime in 1998, because of his African American descent. Three white men, allegedly, chained Byrd to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him down a gravel road, leaving his body parts severed and bloody (Marty,1998). Recently, a new group of people has been targeted by the hateful view

In today's society many religions and many people don't see eye to eye with the LGBTQ community. They see this community as something less significant than others, viewed as something unnatural, and even something different from this world we live in. This community suffers from being threatened for their lives, being scared of being their true self. In what power should people have to make these decision on what people should like; none, because people should be allowed to love whatever gender they please with. People in this community shouldn't have to a live in fear of being judged by others, tormented, or even humiliated because others don't agree with what gender they like. They are just like every human that loves, but many don't see that because of maybe the way they were raised was to only believe in same sex marriage or people just don't like the idea of a sex liking the same sex. People don't see that society is more open than it was back in the days. This community suffers from being othered and are being viewed as monstering walking on the street. There's stereotypes being made about people in this community, there's religions that disown family that are in this community, and people don't see these types of event could lead to self harm, addiction, and could mess a person mind, just because they don't agree with what gender they please with.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community have always had issues with discrimination and prejudice; even now anti-gay movements are growing not only in our communities but also in our legislative branch in the government. These people disguise their hate behind the constitution and claim freedom of religion and speech. There ignoreos is growing to our congressmen and women, laws are being pass in some states to prevent other anti gay laws. We as a nation in some states are regressing as a whole and not progressing. The progress we have made recently which allows gay marriage in all 50 states is wonderful progress but we can and should do much more to allow LGBT members the equality they

It has been said that we discriminate because we are scared, and people do believe that holds some value. Why else would we hate for no reason? How do we define discrimination against homosexuals as just? Discrimination is fueled by hate and ignorance. In Human Rights a Short Introduction by Andrew Clapham, he discusses The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 that describes to whom human rights should be bestowed upon.

In 2013, nearly 200 reported cases of sexual orientation-based hate crimes were reported in Canada; of those crimes, 66% involved violence (Watson, 2015). Scott Jones, a young homosexual man was the victim of one of these attacks. The brutal attack rendered him paralyzed. Through the support of family and friends, he was able to collaborate with them to create “Don’t be afraid” in an effort to draw awareness to LBGT violence and help promote acceptance (Jones, 2015). He is able to provide insight through his experiences in the healthcare system such as the roles and collaboration used in his care, as well as being inspirational.

Imagine feeling unsafe wherever you go, fearing that you’re going to be the next victim of a hate crime. Being terrified that your family is going to get a call saying that your body was found lifeless, bloody, and nearly unidentifiable on the side of the road. Gay and trans youth are constantly fearing that they are going to be killed, beaten, , kicked out, or unaccepted for something they cannot control. LGBT+ people are twice as likely to be victims of hate crimes than any other minority. Despite these statistics, the media hardly covers their deaths or beatings. Justice should not be taken away from an individual due to their sexual orientation, preference, or gender because we are all equal, regardless of circumstances.

Did you know in 2016 in the district of Columbia LGBT hate crimes increased by 59% almost doubling from what it was in 2015? Hate crimes are not uncommon but they have gotten worse over the last few years. The percent of Gay/Lesbian people in the US is about 3.8% and among this hate crimes are extremely common most taking place in the person's own home.

Based on the discussion from the Williams Institute, it is evident that there continues to be a prevalence of discrimination among groups that are not viewed as culturally acceptable in our county. In this article, it is reported that people are more likely to experience hate crimes based on their sexual orientations. For instance, 44% of people reported experience physical violence (without a weapon) because of their sexual orientation, and 80% had been verbally harassed (Herek, 2009). Although the Hates Crimes Statistic Law became effective in 1990, the stigma surrounding the LGBTQ community continues to affect their everyday life. It may defer a person by identified their sexual orientation for the fear of being discriminating in the workplace,

Around the world, crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity are on the rise. According to 76crimes.com, the Trans Murder Monitoring project of Transgender Europe reported 1,731 transgender and gender-diverse people were murdered in more than 44 countries around the world between 2008 and 2014. Nearly 500 of those murders occurred between May 2013 and December 2014. According the FBI, approximately 1,200 out of 6,000 hate crimes committed in 2013 were based on sexual orientation in the United States.

Imagine you're walking down the street and you’re doing something normal like shopping. All of the sudden you hear a huge bang, a gunshot, from somewhere in front of you and see a woman lying down on the ground bleeding to death while people call 911 and try to save her, she's already dead. People cry and try helping, but the reason that the event that just occurred happened was because she was transgender. Now does that change your perspective? Do you stop crying and leave once you find this out? Most people would.

A hate crime is defined as “the violence of intolerance and bigotry, intended to hurt and intimidate someone because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability(U.S. Department of Justice).” There are laws against hate crimes in the Washington D.C and forty-five states. The five states that do not have any laws are: Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming. States that have these laws would enforce a harsher punishment for crimes where prejudice is used such as types of assault, vandalism, and murder. There were 7,722 reported hate crimes in 2006. Fifty-two percent were targeted at people because of their race, nineteen percent because of their religion, sixteen percent for their sexual orientation, and thirteen percent for ethnicity and national origin.

Victimization of LGBT community members is elevating as time passes. Researchers attempt to determine the prevalence of the violence committed against members of the LGBT community (Rothman, Exner, & Baughman, 2011). Many people that identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender that are victims of hate crimes have participated in studies where they insist that the crimes committed against them are based on their sexuality; not class, color, gender, or any other factor. In a qualitative study, Meyer (2009) conducted open-ended interviews with people who were victims of hate crimes. The participants were recruited at LGBT advocacy organizations. Those who presumed that their hate crime was due to multiple systems of oppression such as class,

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) people are discriminated against, terrorized, and protested against. They have barely any laws guarding their rights. All Americans are supposed to have all the rights needed for their pursuit of happiness, yet LGBTQ+ citizens do not. This needs to stop. And the U.S., while still quite far away, is slowly on its way to equity for all of its citizens. But good LGBT Americans are mostly treated unfairly.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, also known as LGBT population have experienced a great deal of oppression worldwide. These particular individuals undergo discrimination from society, whether for reasons of ignorance, fear or intolerance, this population faces challenges in multiple areas of social justice sexual. Although the LGBT culture has made some strides in the areas of state and federal legislation, there is still a wide range of criminalization that takes place within our culture. Understanding the LGBT community and the history of their oppression may be the first step in becoming culturally competent. For many years this culture was denied their basic constitutional rights that were afforded to their equal heterosexual peers. Basic rights such as, adoption and marriage were uncommon to this culture until the 20th century.