Hate Crimes: A Qualitative Study

Horrific, unthinkable acts of violence against a young gay man, Matthew Shepard, took his life in 1998. This social problem was thrust into the mainstream media largely by his mother, Judy Shepard. She used her tragedy to create awareness, outrage and support exposing violence based solely on sexual orientation. Her work along with activists that joined her helped create our nation’s first hate crime legislation that included crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It also made several other important provisions such as tracking hate crimes based on gender identity (transsexuals), funding to investigate and other critical supports. The Matthew Shepard Foundation does significant work on hate prevention programs in communities and continues to work toward tolerance today through its efforts to provide a voice and support for LGBT youth. Although some progress has been made, different forms of violence against gay and transgendered youth remains a troubling condition.

The issue of the different impacts of offenses based on different factors whether be sexual orientation or race has been a topic of discussion. “Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people might be particularly vulnerable to negative effects of hate crimes….because sexual prejudice is still acceptable in some parts American society and antigay discrimination remains legal in some jurisdictions (Herek, 1997). The main goal of the study done by Herek was to compare the levels of psychological distress among gays, lesbians, and bisexual victims of hate crimes with victims of other types of crimes.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reported, “60.6% [out of] 1,402 hate crimes . . . based on sexual orientation [are] classified as anti-gay (male) bias” (Latest Hate Crime Statistics Report Released). Crimes against homosexuals have been reported nationwide, but a hate crime in Laramie, Wyoming has changed the gay community. October 12, 1998, twenty-one year old Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and murdered by two young Laramie citizens because of Shepard’s sexual orientation. In The Laramie Project and The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later, the town of Laramie consisted of many social problems, which led to individuals violently projecting their bias towards homosexuals. These individuals otherized homosexuals because of the public attitude, morals, education, class, religion, politics, and their leaders. These biases have led to social problems nationwide, but outside of the town of Laramie, change has arisen for the better. Thanks to Matthew Shepard, homosexual awareness has spread nationwide creating a homosexual movement. Laws have been passed throughout the nation, giving homosexuals equal rights. Although gender equality has made progress for homosexuals, hate still roams throughout the nation causing many violent crimes. Fag, homo, queer, flamer, and pansy are words individuals use to otherize homosexuals throughout our nation. This type of name-calling is called gay bashing and is typically used by males. Queer theorists say individuals “seek to show

In a study conducted by Doug Meyer, he interviewed women and men who are gay and lesbian and have been the victim of violence and asked them why they thought they were attacked. The women who are lesbian tended to say that it was because they were being punished for “converting” their partner to being gay. A 50 year old black women named Latoya, had a violent experienced based portraying the hardships of not only being black and gay but also a woman. In the interview she states, “They act like I did this to her. And it’s like I’m not supposed to because then I’m making Black people look bad. Like if I left her alone, she wouldn’t be gay. . . They act like she has no control over herself” (Meyer 859). Because Latoya is butch, meaning she dresses and acts more masculine, they consider her to be more dominant since our society has socialized people into relating masculinity with dominance, and femininity with passiveness. Which is why society tends to think it is the fault of the butch lesbian for taking control of the feminine girl who doesn’t know what she wants. Latoya received prejudice based on not only because of her sexuality but because of her gender as well as being African

Amid the previous decade antigay viciousness has turned into a conspicuous social issue (Berrill, 1990). The National Gay and Lesbian Team reported 7,008 grievances of brutality and badgering against gay people in 1987 contrasted and 4,946 in 1986 and 2,042 in 1985 (Herek, 1989). Over various overviews Berrill (1992) discovered badgering and viciousness to be boundless and developing. Learns at the Colleges of Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania State, Yale, Rutgers, Oberlin, and Oregon have chronicled antigay scenes extending from verbal affront to physical roughness.

Aside from the rise in racial discriminative acts, hate crimes against homosexuals pose as the one of the largest problems in recent news. With the current rise of gay and lesbian marriages, many individuals are protesting that this action is not acceptable and in violent ways. Police and Congress have their hands full sending out large task forces and passing laws to put a stop to harmful protests. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force declared October 19th "National Hate Crimes Call-In Day." The

Harm inflicted on gay people is sometimes caused when people try to force people to fit gender roles.Violence can be influenced when people are around peers, causing these acts to usually occur in front of or with friends who are also homophobic. These unruly behaviors stem from people who want to have close relationships mixing with an over exaggerated sense of masculinity. One attacker stated that they feel as though LGBT people should be ashamed of being different, and another abuser targeted gay people for not conforming to his idea of masculinity (Franklin).

Crimes including physical and sexual assault, hate crimes, robbery, and harassment effect between 61 – 64% of the LGBT community

For a gay boy who came out to his classmates may have many bad effects, one of the biggest effect is the experiences with violence. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Negative attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people put these youths at increased risk for experiences with violence, compared with other students… 19% to 29% of gay and lesbian students...experienced dating violence in the prior year”. In other words, homosexual youth are more likely to have a negative attitude because of the social environment, and because of their negative attitude to suffering violence. Based on the above data, we can know that about a quarter of young people who have participated in the investigation have suffered varying

Unfortunately, violent hate crimes linked to gender nonconformity are prevalent in United States society and are thought to account for a striking number of violent crimes in the U.S. Violent hate crimes are a result of discrimination, and are the cause of many deaths in our society. Discrimination is a societal epidemic that can lead to an array of health issues among targeted individuals. According to medical health article “The Damaging Effects of Discrimination”, published by Medical News Today, discrimination in teens “impacts grade-point averages and is associated with depression, distress and lower levels of self-esteem” (Wheeler). The article goes on to state that discrimination is devastatingly harmful among people of all

LGBT people face disproportionate rates of physical, psychological, and structural violence. Violence has an economic impact when physical injuries are costly and restrict someone’s ability to work, when grief and trauma make it difficult to concentrate on work, and when fear of future assaults may make it difficult for people to travel to and from work.

Those who remain “in the closet” are hiding their internalized feelings from their friends, family, and colleagues, in order to avoid confronting this socially stigmatized part of their life, along with their own potential denial and self-hatred. Because of the stigmas attached to the LGBTQ community, one often feels that they have to hide this part of their life in order to maintain social and work relations, with pressure to conform to the heterosexually dominated culture. This causes internalized confusion because non-heterosexuals are told from society they are abnormal, and thus this can cause a frightening reality and lead to “internalized oppression” that is the “acceptance of negative social attitudes, beliefs, and stereotypes directed towards a devalued or marginalized group” (186). There is an assumed need to silence those who stray from this dominant culture because of fear that they are inherently and psychologically impaired, which causes the illusion that those from the LGBTQ community are very limited. Non-heterosexuality was even identified as a mental illness in the DSM before 1973, referred to as an “interference,” and “distress,” which only further increases negative ideas about it (188). These ideas, as well as heteronormative legislation, lead to violence against those of the LGBTQ community in overt and covert forms by intentional and unintentional heterosexists. This is because of the idea that heterosexualism is the norm and standard, and the belief

Racism is structurally embedded in many institutions, but so does heterosexism as well. They may not be overtly visible, however when one is identified as homosexual, [s]he may become under attack from by the same institutions that are in place to protect in our society. . For many, the social construct of racism is created from a visible trait or characteristic that is visible and obvious, however sexual orientation can be hidden or unspoken. Anti –gay rhetoric, attitudes and behaviors, which in turn, leads to “patterns of

Punitive laws and criminalization of same-sex relationships has fueled social stigmatization of gay men and MSM (Altman, et al. 2012). The potential for stigma and discrimination discourages these populations from seeking HIV/AIDS and health related services, which further increases their vulnerability to mental health issues and HIV/AIDS and STI infections, loss of livelihood, destitution, and poverty, and exposes them to an increased risk of loss of life. Previous studies reported a high level of stigma (Crowell, et al. 2017, Stahlman, et al. 2017) verbal abuse, and violence among MSM. Similarly, our study shows that gay men and MSM who disclose sexual orientation to family and friends were subjected to blackmail, physical and emotional violence. Our study findings indicate that it is essential that homosexual acts are decriminalized and progressive policies around access to HIV/AIDS and sexual health are championed in order to ensure that same-sex communities are empowered to utilize health services.

Something as powerful as discriminations creates a new category of criminal offenses. This is where we chalk up the term, a hate crime. The definition, provided by the Community Relations Service of the US Department of Justice, it is “a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.” (pg. 1) Hate crimes are typically different in the fact that they usually involve arson, vandalism, physical and verbal abuse, verbal threats of causing harm to install a sense of fear into the chosen victim. Due to the obvious fact of hate crimes, it leaves an affect on the victim that echoes through their thoughts throughout their whole life that could cause disorders like PTSD. When studied we find a pattern in the chosen victims among the LGBT community that are compared to victims of rape. When a hate crime is committed, the perpetrator often claims that the blame lays on the victim and that they deserved to be attacked. Fortunately, our judicial system created sentence enhancement for those who commit a hate crime (Hate Crime Sentencing Enhancement Act 1993).