News
Aug. 26 - Young Adults Complete 96 Mile Walk Across Phoenix
Aug. 25 - Religious Straight Americans Speak Up for Gay and Transgender Neighbors
Aug. 06 - Straight Leaders Sought for Seven Straight Nights for Equal Rights 2008
Jun. 04 - Gay Dads to Celebrate Father's Day at Saddleback Church
Discrimination, Hatred, and even Violence
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CALIFORNIA
Anti-Gay Violence Against Youths on the Rise: Assaults on Bay Area Kids Double
Two Percent Rise in Documented Anti-Gay Hate Crimes: A Report -
CALIFORNIA (San Francisco)
Gay Beating Death Brings Tragic Reminder to Castro: Even in S.F., Safety is a Relative Term -
CALIFORNIA (Los Angeles)
LA Hate Crimes Increase 25%, Gay Hate Crimes Increase 43% -
MASSACHUSETTS
Hate Crimes Vs. Gays Up, Mass. Study Says -
MICHIGAN
Crimes Against Gays and Lesbians Jump 12% in State. Report Underlines Hostile Environment, Triangle Group Says -
MINNESOTA
Gay Bashing on the Rise on U. Minnesota Campus, Residence Halls -
NATIONAL
National Anti-Gay Violence Report Marks Disturbing Trends -
NATIONAL
Hate Groups Spreading the Word -
WASHINGTON
One out of Four College Students Admits to Harassing Gays
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1. CALIFORNIA
ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUTHS ON THE RISE
ASSAULTS ON BAY AREA KIDS DOUBLE
Elaine Herscher, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 3, 1998
Violence against gay and lesbian youths increased dramatically last year, according to a national report on anti-gay assaults to be released today.
The report suggests that as young gay people become more visible on college and high school campuses, they are making easier targets.
And as testament to the power of popular culture, the report also connects an "alarming rise" in anti-gay violence last March and April with the national attention heaped on actress Ellen DeGeneres, who announced last spring that she is a lesbian.
Assaults against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV- positive people nationally increased slightly overall last year, by 2 percent, and dipped somewhat -- by 3 percent -- in the Bay Area, according to an annual report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which tracks anti-gay assaults.
The report is based on data compiled by anti-violence organizations in 14 areas around the country, including San Francisco. The report documented 2,445 anti- gay attacks nationwide in 1997, compared with 2,399 in 1996. The Bay Area accounted for a large percentage of those attacks -- 402 last year, compared with 415 the previous year.
Although there is no direct proof of a connection, the study says publicity surrounding DeGeneres' coming out on her sitcom and in real life apparently "spurred a homophobic backlash" last spring.
An unusually high number of Bay Area lesbians reported being the targets of incidents last spring, said Jennifer Rakowski, Hate Violence Project coordinator for Community United Against Violence in San Francisco. In April, 20 of 44 people who reported assaults were women. Usually, women make up a third of those reporting anti-gay incidents.
Another trend the authors found disturbing was a 34 percent increase in anti-gay violence at public schools and colleges and a 35 percent increase over 1996 in attacks against people ages 18 to 22. Last year, 329 young people in that age range were victims of anti-gay assaults, compared with 244 the previous year.
Violence against gay and lesbian kids in Bay Area schools doubled from eight incidents to 17.
A resurgence of intolerance in the schools for all minorities accounts for some of it, but increased visibility of lesbian and gay kids is also a factor, Rakowski said.
"As more gay/straight alliances form (in high schools) across the country, we're seeing more youth come out ... and then they're facing the consequences at a younger age," she said.
Attacks against heterosexuals perceived to be gay also increased significantly, by 36 percent, prompting warnings that straight people could be more vulnerable than they think based on perception alone.
Anti-gay violence encompasses everything from slurs yelled from a car to minor physical assaults to murder.
Nationally, the group reported 18 slayings, one in the Bay Area. Vitaly Poliakov, 29, was an Oakland resident who was bludgeoned to death in Orinda on August 31, allegedly after a sexual encounter. A 17-year-old boy has been charged.
The numbers indicate that Bay Area residents are assaulted in minor ways every day. Andrea Pasillas, a 42-year-old transsexual woman, said last fall she was treated rudely by a Muni bus driver. When Pasillas asked for an apology, she said the male bus driver told her, "I don't mess around with men," and, "I don't want to have sex with you."
She said that when she asked for his identification number, the driver took a swing at her. Muni found the driver at fault and was disciplining him, according to Community United Against Violence.
"Nobody has the right because you are a butch lesbian or an effeminate gay man or a transgendered woman to assault and abuse you," Pasillas said.
For the first time last year, the Castro was not the center of anti- gay violence locally; the Mission District had 50 incidents, twice as many as in the Castro.
Both the local and the national studies found a significant increase in the number of people assaulted numerous times by someone who knows them.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs documents a 2 percent rise across the country in violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender and HIV-positive people.
| Incidents Reported to National Tracking Programs 1996-1997 | |||
| Tracking program location | 1996 | 1997 | % Chg. |
| Central Coast (California) | 30 | 56 | +53% |
| Chicago | 96 | 49 | -49% |
| Cleveland | 18 | 25 | +39% |
| Columbus (Ohio) | 186 | 206 | +11% |
| Detroit | 116 | 120 | +3% |
| El Paso (Texas) | 176 | 145 | -18% |
| Los Angeles | 396 | 350 | -12% |
| Massachusetts | 161 | 228 | +42% |
| New York City | 575 | 658 | +14% |
| Phoenix | 34 | 60 | +77% |
| San Francisco | 415 | 402 | -3% |
| St. Louis | 44 | 51 | +16% |
| Virginia | 55 | 40 | -27% |
| Washington, D.C. | 116 | 120 | -33% |
| TOTALS | 2,399 | 2,445 | +2% |
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
www.sfgate.com
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2. CALIFORNIA (San Francisco)
GAY BEATING DEATH BRINGS TRAGIC REMINDER TO CASTRO: EVEN IN S.F., SAFETY IS A RELATIVE TERM
Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, March 16, 1998
A pall hangs over the Castro District, a cloud that even yesterday's sunny weather couldn't dispel -- a random street attack had taken the life of another gay man.
On Friday night, 45-year-old San Francisco resident Brian Wilmes was viciously beaten outside the Loading Dock, a Mission Street leather bar, by a man who was reportedly intoxicated and screamed gay epithets. The attack was described as a classic hate crime by investigators.
Wilmes fell into a coma after he struck the pavement. He died from his injuries Saturday afternoon at California Pacific Medical Center. The suspect fled in a car with a woman, but police were able to trace the vehicle with information obtained from a homeless man who also had been assaulted.
Early Saturday morning, police arrested South San Francisco resident Edgar Mora, 25, for the attack. He is expected to be arraigned on murder charges today or tomorrow.
For the city's gay community, Wilmes' beating and subsequent death was a chilling reminder that "safety" is a relative term -- even in a liberal and accepting city like San Francisco.
"Any time anything like this happens, it just reminds (gay) people that we're never really secure," said Steven Tierney as he ate a late lunch at a Castro Street restaurant. "People move to San Francisco to be safe, but this shows how tentative it all is, especially at night, when people are drunk or doing drugs and feeling crazy."
San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano said he has fielded a great many calls from outraged constituents since the attack.
"There's a deep, visceral reaction (from gay men and lesbians)" any time attacks like this occur, said Ammiano. "That's because bigotry against gays is pervasive, and all of us have had traumatic experiences to one degree or another. I remember once when I was pursued in my car (by a gay basher). These things stay with you."
While acknowledging that the attack was disturbing, some Castro residents said they don't think it marks a return to the 1970s and 1980s, when gay bashing appeared to be a growing phenomenon.
"Actually, it's been a long time since anything like this has happened," said Jonathan Minton, who strolled along Noe Street yesterday with a companion, Tim Carroll. "It seemed random -- it wasn't like somebody purposely came into the Castro with the intent of doing violence."
Carroll agreed.
"From what I hear, it sounded more drug- or alcohol-related than a hate crime," said Carroll. "He was acting irrationally."
Carroll is no relation to Wilmes' companion, also named Tim Carroll, who was with Wilmes at the time of the attack.
A small candle-lit shrine illuminated one corner of the bar at the Loading Dock last night. Mark Dreier, owner of the club, said the nature of the incident indicated it could have happened anywhere.
"(The assailant) was a guy who was in a rage for whatever reason," said Dreier. "He had earlier caused a commotion at a bus stop and attacked a homeless man. Then he saw a gay man, and it triggered his homophobia. We feel very bad here. We have a specialized clientele, and we lost one of our own."
Dreier said that Michael Gillespie, the homeless man who provided police with the license plate number of the getaway car, was "the hero of the hour. He did his duty."
Ammiano also praised Gillespie and said he would recommend him for a city commendation.
"It's this kind of community involvement that can make a difference," he said.
But some Castro residents said the attack demonstrates that the gay community must heighten its vigilance against bigotry and street violence.
"I'm probably the most conservative gay man in San Francisco, but I think we have to be very aggressive in our response to these kinds of incidents," said Don Fisher, manager of the Great Earth Vitamin Store on Castro Street.
"I take a very hardball approach to any kind of harassment or threat," Fisher said. "These kinds of incidents are by no means rare -- they also occur in the Castro. But I think there'd be fewer of them if fewer gay men and lesbians opted for a passive response."
Fisher said he favored an approach adopted by the gay community in West Hollywood several years ago following a series of attacks on gay men.
"There were street and car patrols, and they were very visible and very effective," he said. "I think something similar here would be appropriate."
Ammiano is thinking along congruent lines.
"We used to have a whistle-blowing campaign in this city, but it was discontinued in the 1980s," Ammiano said. "We handed out whistles to people in the community, and they'd blow them whenever they saw trouble. It was very effective, and I'm going to introduce a resolution to the board to renew the program."
Ammiano said he will also hold a community forum on anti-gay violence on March 21 at 4:00 p.m. at the Harvey Milk School, 19th and Collingwood Streets.
Source and Response:
E-MAIL: chronletters@sfgate.com
www.sfgate.com
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3. CALIFORNIA (Los Angeles)
LA HATE CRIMES INCREASE 25%, GAY HATE CRIMES INCREASE 43%
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Friday, April 27, 1997
Hate Crime Reports Increase 25% Trends: Commission says rise is a reflection of law enforcement efforts.
By JOHN M. GONZALES
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Reported hate crimes in Los Angeles County rose a dramatic 25% in 1996, a figure that human relations experts attribute to better law enforcement efforts and demographic shifts in several cities.
Officials with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations stressed that the figures are not cause for alarm and instead can be linked to better public awareness and a willingness to report crimes that in years past would have been overlooked.
The commission's 17th annual hate crime report also found that for the first time, clear clusters of racially motivated crimes were recorded in the Antelope Valley, the Harbor Gateway, Van Nuys and Westchester. The Long Beach and Hollywood areas emerged as pockets of hostility toward gays, according to the report.
Hate crime reports countywide against blacks increased 50% from 1995 to 1996. But again commissioners cautioned that the report "does not say it has become open season on African Americans." They said it more accurately reflects that as blacks move to areas once populated by other ethnic groups, they face increased animosity. Also, better English skills and access to authorities make them more likely to report than Asians and Latinos, commissioners said.
Reports of racially motivated attacks--combined with a 43% increase in reported hate crimes against gay men, lesbians and bisexuals -- and consistent hate crimes against Jewish Americans on the Westside, had commissioners urging reforms.
Of the 995 hate crimes reported, 539 were classified as racial, 338 were classified as sexual orientation offenses, and the rest were apparently motivated by religion or gender.
The report called on the county Board of Supervisors to grant the commission half a million dollars to target problem areas for a conflict resolution effort that would include law enforcement agencies, businesses.
Commission Executive Director Ron Wakabayashi said working-class communities such as Harbor Gateway and newer communities such as the Antelope Valley often lack the support networks needed to combat hate crimes.
"In places like that, we need to build the response from the ground up," he said.
The commission also wants to use the money to establish human relations classes and counseling sessions at elementary, middle and high schools.
The commission further asked the supervisors to create a $25,000 reward fund for information leading to the conviction of severe hate crime perpetrators.
Joel Bellman, spokesman for Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, said the commission, which received $958,000 for fiscal 1996-97, will have to appeal for the money during budget hearings early next month.
"I am not minimizing their findings," he said. "They are a high-priority agency. But there simply is not enough to go around."
He pointed out that the commission is a monitoring agency and that other organizations within the cash-strapped county, such as the district attorney's office and Sheriff's Department, also fight hate crimes.
But despite more diligent recording of the crimes by law enforcement, the report said that some police still ignore hate crimes in isolated incidents because of interagency rivalries, public image concerns for their patrol areas and a desire to dodge the additional investigation needed to document the offenses.
The report called for law enforcement to beef up its hate crime protocols. Robin Toma, a spokesman for the commission, said the Los Angeles Police Department and the Sheriff's Department were among the police agencies where such underreporting occurred.
Cmdr. Tim McBride of the LAPD said each station has a hate crime coordinator and that department policy requires every hate crime to be reported.
But he acknowledged that the department has also discovered incidents of underreporting.
"We have made great strides in reporting and investigating hate crimes. They're viewed very seriously ... and we will ensure that this organization does everything possible to protect people from them," he said.
Deputy William E. Martin, a spokesman for Sheriff Sherman Block, said the department has dramatically increased reporting and deterred hate crimes through community-based policing efforts.
"We're not ignoring this. We realize the gravity of the situation," he said.
The report defined a hate crime as a case in which the facts indicate that hatred or prejudice based on the victim's race, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender or sexual orientation was a substantial factor in motivating the offense.
Among the report's findings:
- More than half of all hate crimes were murders, attempted murders, assaults, attempted assaults or rapes.
- More than 79% of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were murders, attempted murders, assaults, attempted assaults, rapes or kidnappings.
- Hate crimes motivated by religion increased 9.3%, with 84% of those cases against Jewish individuals and organizations.
- Of the 751 perpetrators in all hate-crime categories whose gender was known, more than 90% were males.
- Crimes at schools, though few, increased 50%.
- Hate crimes against Middle Easterners, though relatively few, increased 25%.
- Inadequate reporting mechanisms for crimes motivated by gender and disabilities continue to result in minimal reports.
Rise in Hate Crimes
Hate crimes rose 25% in Los Angeles County in 1996, according to an annual survey by the Commission of Human Relations
- '93: 783
- '94: 776
- '95: 793
- '96: 995
Who Are The Victims?
- African American: 30%
- Gay men: 25%
- Asian: 6%
- Lesbian : 6%
- White: 9%
- Jewish: 10%
- Other: 7%
Latino: 8%
Source: Channel Q News Desk
Email: newsdesk@channelq.com
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4. MAINE
HATE SPEECH LEAVES MARK ON STUDENTS
By Ruth-Ellen Cohen, Of the NEWS Staff
ORONO - He would hear it dozens of times a day, but its ability to hurt never abated. "The word 'faggot,"' said the high school senior, "rotted me out inside." The high school student, who is gay, was one of three Maine students who on Thursday told a youth violence summit at the University of Maine that hateful, cruel words pack as much of a wallop as a fist.
A black college student and a Jewish high school freshman also bared their souls as they recalled the terror and anger they experienced when assailed with hurtful language and racial slurs.
Threatening words almost always are the precursor to violent acts, Stephen Wessler of the Attorney General's Office said during the conference, which focused on preventing violence by confronting harassment and hate language.
"Violence doesn't explode in a vacuum," Wessler told more than 200 teachers, administrators, law enforcement officials and students. "There's a history before the [violent incident] - months of hateful language and racial slurs that haven't been addressed."
The event was designed not so much to offer solutions for eliminating harassment, but to encourage participants to develop violence-prevention plans in their own school systems. It was sponsored by the Maine Leadership Consortium, an organization of state-level educational leaders, along with the Maine Attorney General's Office and the Maine Department of Education.
Tolerating disrespectful language creates an environment in which students conclude they can take their harassment one step further and commit a violent act, Wessler said.
But harassment does its dirty work even before it explodes into violence, according to Wessler, who lamented its effect on students' "self-esteem and sense of worth."
Students who were physically assaulted during a hate crime may not be able to remember their wounds or the number of stitches they received, but "they can tell us every word said to them," Wessler said. "That language robs their soul."
Hate crimes against African-Americans, gays, lesbians and Jews represent 75 percent of civil rights cases, according to Wessler, one of a number of attorneys who volunteer to handle the civil rights enforcement along with their other duties.
The perpetrators of hate crimes are getting younger each year, and now involve elementary school pupils, said Wessler.
Most of the crimes take place in school or are school-related between children who know each other, he said, adding that "the violence is equally distributed around the state, and is a sign that there's a lot underneath that we need to deal with."
Meanwhile, Betsy Sweet, a social worker who facilitates diversity training, told the group that adults should chastise students who routinely toss disrespectful words at each other, even if the insults are meant in jest. Homosexual students who hear others laughingly use the word "fag" without anyone intervening, could think, "these people loathe me and it's OK with the teacher," she said.
By stopping the hateful language, even if it's only to say, "'Hey, we don't talk like that around here,' you can't imagine the power and joy it gives to someone in a targeted group," said Sweet.
The room grew silent as Wessler shared examples of hate letters that have crossed his desk while he has been involved in advocating for civil rights.
One read, "You Jews better get out of Maine before we blow you up."
Another, found nailed to the front door of a home belonging to an African-American man, showed a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan with the words "We're back" underneath.
Wessler reminded the crowd that Maine has an "ugly history of the KKK." In the 1920s and 1930s, Maine's membership was the largest of any state outside the south, he said, adding that the group's focus was on French Catholics as well as blacks and Jews.
The students on the panel, who declined to give their last names, spoke eloquently about how their experiences affected them.
Wil, a student at Bowdoin College who grew up in the South, told the group that although he could deal with overt hostility, it was the "subtle racism" in Maine that "cut me deeper."
As a basketball coach to 15 boys "who were like my own sons," the young man overheard one of the boys use the word "wigger," a term that denotes whites who identify with black culture.
"To hear one of my own use the term so loosely without considering its effect on me, hurt me much deeper than a punch," said the young man.
Seth, one of five Jewish students in his school, recalled a swastika that another student drew on a piece of paper and presented to him.
"It was shocking and incredibly scary," said the youth.
Source:
Bangor Daily News
October 2, 1998
Box 1329, Bangor, ME, 04402-1329
Fax: 207-941-9476
E-MAIL: bdnmail@bangornews.infi.net
www.bangornews.com
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5. MASSACHUSETTS
HATE CRIMES VS. GAYS UP, MASS. STUDY SAYS
By Zachary R. Dowdy, Globe Staff
BOSTON GLOBE, March 4, 1998
Hate incidents reported against gays and lesbians in Massachusetts surged in 1997, increasing 42 percent despite a sharp dip in overall crime, according to a study released yesterday by the Violence Recovery Program of Fenway Community Health Center.
The study also showed that while about 35 percent of the threats, harassment, assault, and vandalism occurred in Boston, which reported 80 incidents as opposed to 70 in 1996, the most dramatic rise occurred in Worcester County, which reported 33 incidents as opposed to four in 1996.
In all, Massachusetts reported 228 such incidents in 1997, up from 161 the year before.
Forty-nine people were assaulted, up from 41 in 1996. Homicides dipped, however. While the report speculates that the February 1997 murder in Boston of Lee Thompson may have been related to his sexual orientation, it identifies three such murders in Massachusetts in 1996.
The report's results were considerably more alarming than national figures released yesterday by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, which incorporates the Violence Recovery Program's numbers and data from other states. It found just a 2 percent overall increase in violent attacks against gays.
The coalition of 13 groups nationwide, which specializes in monitoring violence against gays and lesbians and helping victims of attacks, documented 2,445 incidents last year. At least 18 murders nationally bore the markers of anti-gay violence in 1997, compared to 21 such murders in 1996.
Robb Johnson, a victim advocate at the Fenway health center, said the higher numbers in Massachusetts may stem from one or both of two factors: a greater willingness among victims to report attacks or an actual rise in attacks on gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people.
"If there's an explanation for that increase, perhaps it lies in the [the greater visibility of gays and lesbians] in 1997 and the degree to which that provoked debate in larger society about our legitimacy and our rights in society," Johnson said.
He reasoned that a number of spectacles in the mass media last year have raised the profile of gays and lesbians. They range from the serial killings of Andrew Cunanan, a gay man who authorities say killed fashion designer Gianni Versace last July, to the highly publicized "coming out" last spring of Ellen DeGeneres, who plays title character Ellen Morgan in "Ellen," the ABC situation comedy.
"With each passing year, it seems the volume of coverage to our issues and debate about our lives is increasing," he said.
Forty-eight percent of the Massachusetts incidents included threats, intimidation or harassment, 27 percent involved physical assault, and 6 percent involved vandalism or graffiti.
Two incidents involved the setting of fires and a bomb threat to a gay nightclub.
"The disturbing increase in reported incidents in Massachusetts is a chilling reminder that every day gays and lesbians, adults and young people alike are targets of harassment, intimidation, or violence," said state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger in a prepared statement.
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6. MICHIGAN
CRIMES AGAINST GAYS AND LESBIANS JUMP 12% IN STATE
REPORT UNDERLINES HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT, TRIANGLE GROUP SAYS
By Dee-Ann Durbin / Associated Press
DETROIT -- Michigan saw a 12-percent increase in reported crimes against gays and lesbians in 1997, a Detroit-based gay rights group announced Tuesday.
The Triangle Foundation said that compares to a 2-percent increase nationwide.
Based on law enforcement records, Triangle recorded 120 anti-gay crimes against 134 separate people in Michigan last year. The group said 84 percent of those were assaults, 16 percent were crimes against property, including arson and vandalism.
"What we know and what this report bears out is that Michigan is a hostile environment for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and people living with HIV and AIDS," Triangle Foundation director Jeffrey Montgomery said.
The primary source of reports and cases in Michigan were from the Detroit- area counties of Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw, the foundation said.
The Triangle Foundation said at least 40 percent of Michigan's crimes took place around gay pride parades or other places where suspects apparently sought out gays. In one incident last May, a carload of youths shot blow darts at a crowd outside a gay bar in Lansing.
Because many people outside of Michigan's cities are afraid to report hate crimes, most of the crimes were reported in the Detroit area, Triangle said.
"We don't pretend for a moment that this is a full report on anti- homosexual activity in the country or in Michigan," Montgomery said.
Montgomery said some of the increase both statewide and nationwide was attributed to reports in the news, including the February 1997 bombing of a lesbian bar in Atlanta and the coming out of Ellen DeGeneres' character on her television show, Ellen.
"Any time we're getting attention, be that good or bad attention, we're going to see backlash," Montgomery said. "There is the cost of backlash when we go forward ... but it's like athletes. You have to feel pain to improve your performance."
This year, the Triangle Foundation plans to concentrate on the passage of a Michigan House bill sponsored by Rep. Lynne Martinez, D-Lansing, which would include gays in the state's hate crime laws. The Ethnic Intimidation Act of 1988 covers crimes perpetrated because of someone's race, religion, gender or national origin.
At least one victim of an alleged anti-gay crime attended the news conference where the report was presented.
James Calcaterra, 33, said he suffered facial injuries, a closed head wound, a lacerated testicle and other injuries from an attack in New Baltimore in September 1996. He said he required nine hours of surgery after the attack.
Calcaterra said it took police four months to charge the alleged perpetrator, who has denied knowing Calcaterra is gay.
"For me to sit down and shut up would be a sin, because I'm still able to talk and others have been silenced," Calcaterra said. "Straight people don't have to like gay people. That's fine. And gay people don't have to like straight people. But we do have to get along."
SOURCE:
DETROIT NEWS, March 4, 1998
615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI, 48226.
Fax: 313-222-6417
E-MAIL: letters@detnews.com
www.detnews.com
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7. MINNESOTA
GAY BASHING ON THE RISE ON U. MINNESOTA CAMPUS, RESIDENCE HALLS
By Scott M. Larson
Minnesota Daily (U. Minnesota)
05/07/98
(U-WIRE) MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- No one is allowed in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Programs Office in Coffman Union alone without the front door locked.
Employees regularly encounter several types of harassment from threatening voice-mail messages to graffiti.
"Stuff happens in our office that other offices don't have to deal with," said director Beth Zemsky.
But according to police reports, this type of anti-gay harassment is happening all over campus, with more frequency.
After a quiet end to 1996 and the first nine months of 1997, police reports of homosexual-biased crimes have gone up this school year -- especially in residence halls.
University Police records reveal eight reports of biased crimes on campus in the last two school years. But there have been four reports in the last nine months; a jump compared to four in the previous year and a half.
Though officials said this type of harassment has occurred on a regular basis for years at the University, campus groups have different ways of dealing with it.
Around campus, GLBT programs office took reports of 63 incidents of people who felt they had been treated poorly because of their sexual orientation or gender identification in 1997.
These reports include workplace, classroom and housing discrimination.
Zemsky said a fair amount of the reports come from student housing. The GLBT programs office has received eight reports from housing alone since the beginning of the year.
"You get people from all over the state and the world and it's the first time they've lived together," Zemsky said. When these people get together, she said, something is bound to happen.
Such has been the case at times in Bailey Hall. Three recent incidents caused hall coordinator Kevin Altes to send letters to every resident decrying sexual-based harassment and asking residents to report crimes they see.
Last month, Joel Dickinson, a freshman who lives in Bailey Hall, came home to find a picture he had hung on his door of two men kissing scrawled with offensive graffiti. It said, "Fags are us."
He isn't the only person in Bailey Hall to be targeted. Earlier in the year someone wrote "fags, dykes" on a soda machine in the hall and more recently "fags suck" on a bathroom stall.
This type of graffiti can be found in many places around campus, especially restroom stalls.
"These people are accomplishing nothing but fear," Dickinson said. "As much as they hate me, I hate them."
Last summer in Comstock Hall, Heidi-Rose Isenhart, a freshman in English Education, tried to advertise a GLBT group meeting by putting up fliers.
Every time the fliers went up, they were swiftly torn down, even though they had been cleared by the front desk.
"This year we are finding fliers in the same places and they are still there," Isenhart said. "I don't think people cared at all."
Isenhart now lives in Bailey. She said she has also seen a general fear of gays and lesbians in the hall.
But Altes said Bailey is not unique on campus.
"I think the climate here is no different from the rest of campus," Altes said. "There are people here who are uncomfortable with issues of homosexuality."
Altes runs many programs in the hall to help sway these attitudes. He holds diversity workshops and floor meetings to talk about differences.
Other offices handle these incidents in a variety of ways.
Detective Charles Miner said University police do not investigate biased crimes differently than any other incidents.
The difference exists when these cases are prosecuted. Minnesota has a biased crime statute that increases the penalty if someone commits a crime because of a perceived bias.
But Miner said there is a fine line in some cases.
"Some of the cases fall under free speech," Miner said. Doors belong to the residence halls and as long as the writing is erasable, there isn't much the police can do, Miner said.
But when reported, he said, police will investigate.
Anti-homosexual incidents can also be reported to the GLBT programs office.
Zemsky said her first move is to talk through the incident with the victim. Then she makes sure the victim is safe to go back home.
Part of the office's goal is to provide a place for victims of this type of harassment.
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8. NATIONAL
NATIONAL ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE REPORT MARKS DISTURBING TRENDS
On March 3 in cities around the nation, anti-violence organizations will unveil the latest annual report, "Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, HIV Violence in 1997," which gives startling new information on the rise in violence against the community. In Atlanta, Boston, Columbus, Detroit, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, local organizations will release the report along with particular information relevant to violence within their own communities.
Despite a significant decline in non-hate violent crime in America, anti-gay violence continues to rise. A drastic increase of anti-gay violence at the hands of law enforcement officers is just one of the deeply troubling trends identified. "It is extremely disturbing that more and more people are suffering homophobic violence at the hands of the police, the very people who are entrusted with ensuring the safety of all citizens," said Jeffrey Montgomery of Detroit's Triangle Foundation, a member of the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP).
A dramatic rise in attacks on heterosexuals perceived as being gay is also noteworthy. "This underscores the fact that hate crimes are crimes of perception. Victims are chosen not necessarily because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or HIV positive, but because the perpetrator perceives them to be," said New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (GLOV) Executive Director Christine Quinn. "No one is safe from hate crimes. It is in everyone's interest to stop this epidemic of hate."
For more information contact NCAVP spokespeople Jeff Montgomery at (313) 537-3323 or Christine Quinn at (212) 807-6761
Or at GLAAD, contact: Don Romesburg
(415) 861-2244
romesburg@glaad.org
www.glaad.org
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9. NATIONAL
HATE GROUPS SPREADING THE WORD
By EDDIE PELLS
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Hate groups are on the rise, boosted by the Internet and white-power rock music.
In its quarterly report on extremist organizations, the Southern Poverty Law Center said Tuesday that it counted 474 hate groups nationwide in 1997, a 20 percent increase over 1996. Some of the groups have Web pages.
"It's cheap, it's efficient, it gives you instant communication," project director Joe Roy said. "You can reach anywhere with it. It's a great format to communicate, vent your frustrations."
Among the groups cited in the report was Detroit-based Resistance Records, a company that distributes CDs with racially tinged lyrics.
The report called Resistance Records one of the more sophisticated hate groups. "You look at their magazine, the albums and they're very professional," extremist-group expert Michael Barkun said in the report.
Executives of the company didn't immediately return calls for comment.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, founded in the 1970s to battle discrimination against minorities, won major legal fights against the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups.
A separate report by two gay advocacy groups Tuesday said anti-gay violence and harassment increased nationwide by 2 percent last year in 14 areas around country.
There were 2,445 documented cases of anti-gay violence and harassment last year in the 14 areas, according to the report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
However, the number of murders related to anti-gay violence dropped to 18 in 1997 from 27 in 1996, according to the report, based on data gathered by unofficial local groups.
The 14 areas tracked were New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; California's central coast; Chicago; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; El Paso, Texas; Massachusetts; Phoenix; St. Louis; and Virginia.
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10. NEW YORK
SHAME OF OUR 'SAFER' CITY: BIAS CRIMES ARE UP 27%
By MURRAY WEISS and LARRY CELONA
Hate crimes rose 27 percent last year despite the city's overall drop in crime for the fifth consecutive year, police statistics show.
Led by anti-Semitic and anti-black incidents, bias-related crimes rose to 555 in 1996, up from 437 the year before, NYPD records show.
Police Commissioner Howard Safir said hate crimes jumped dramatically in the aftermath of the Dec. 8, 1995, firebombing of Freddy's Fashion Mart on West 125th Street in Harlem that left eight people dead, including the arsonist.
The fiery racist attack by the crazed man stemmed from a landlord-tenant dispute in which a longtime black businessman was being evicted by the landlord -- a powerful black church group -- that wanted to give a more expensive lease to a Jewish businessman.
"There was a lot of rhetoric at the time," Safir said, noting that hate crimes declined by 9 percent during the second half of the year.
The majority of incidents -- 65 percent -- are faceless attacks against property or from anonymous letter writers penning hate mail to a neighbor or religious or civic institution.
"Most of these are pretty cowardly acts," Safir said. "We analyze what is generally grafitti. There is no pattern, our general sense is that most property crime, like swastikas, and anti-black incidents are done by kids.
"It is not like we have a major skinhead group doing this sort of thing."
Nonetheless, Safir said he has beefed up the NYPD's anti-bias unit 33 percent by adding six new detectives -- a move designed to ensure that investigators have the manpower to dig deep into all cases so they do not miss the fingerprint of an organized hate group.
Anti-Semitic incidents led the list of hate crimes, with 212, a 31 percent increase over last year's 162 incidents.
Anti-black incidents remained second, followed by anti-white crimes.
The only category to show a decline was incidents against homosexuals -- which dropped 23 percent, from 83 to 64.
Bea Hanson, head of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, concurred that anti-gay incidents dropped last year, although she claimed by only 10 percent.
And she noted that assaults against homosexuals rose by 5 percent.
"There has been an increase in viciousness," she said.
Safir said the number of bias arrests climbed 27 percent, to 168 last year from 145 in 1995.
Despite the sharp increase in bias crimes, Safir pointed out that considering the size of New York, the numbers were relatively small.
"I think this a very tolerant city," Safir said. "And I think that we have such diversity that all of us learn to live with each other and not be afraid of each other. We have no choice."
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11. TEXAS
PROBATION GIVEN FOR ROLE IN GAY HATE CRIME MURDER
Excerpted from the June 29, July 1, 1997 Houston Chronicle
A Harris County, Texas jury sentenced Ronald Gauthier, 23, to 10 years Probation Friday for his part in the slaying of a gay man who was stabbed 35 times. The jury required 10 hours of deliberations to find Gauthier guilty, and about an hour to decide on punishment for the crime. Punishment options ranged from probation to life in prison.
Gauthier's half-brother, Daniel Bean, is serving a life prison term for the Jan. 4, 1996killing of Fred Mangione outside a Katy, Texas, bar. Mangione was stabbed 35 times with a deer-gutting knife.
A juror, Barbara Mitchell, said the panel assessed probation despite the murder conviction because jurors did not believe the state proved Gauthier was an active participant in the killing. Prosecutor Randy Ayers tried to convince the jury that Gauthier held the victim down while his brother stabbed him in the legs and lower back.
Gauthier insisted that he was not present when Bean stabbed Mangione, and had no idea what his half-brother had done. Mitchell said the jury was influenced by testimony from a former Houston police crime lab director, who testified that Gauthier could not have been in the van because no blood was on his shirt or jacket. Blood was smeared on the lower part of his jeans, however.
The police officer who stopped Bean and Gauthier minutes after the murder testified that the two told him they had, "We just (expletive) a fag." Witnesses at Dolly's Place, the Katy bar where the crime took place, also testified that the brothers told a patron of the bar that they were going to mess with the "fags."
Gautier earlier had claimed that he and Bean acted in self-defense, when Mangione threatened them with a knife. He later recanted, saying he lied to protect his brother.
Gauthier rejoiced with his family after the sentence was read Friday, saying, he had "God to thank for this one," he said as he left the courthouse in handcuffs.
Kenneth Stern, Mangione's lover of 16 years, expressed dismay at the sentence. Gauthier followed Stern back into the bar and began beating him. Bean followed a short time later and threw a bloody knife on the bar next to Stern. Stern also expressed concern for his own safety, noting that Gauthier lives with his mother in the same Katy neighborhood as Stern.
Lane Lewis, president of the Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said Friday the probated sentence was unjust. "If the two men were together, then in my opinion they were equally as guilty," Lewis said. "It makes it even more heinous when the murder is based simply on bigotry and ignorance."
Lewis predicted some "spillover reaction" this weekend when members of the gay community celebrate with the Houston Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade. No disturbances were reported.
On Monday, State District Judge Werner Voigt imposed strict conditions on Gauthier's probation, ordering that Gauthier stay in jail until he can enroll in Harris County boot camp,which could be as long as five months from now. Gauthier has been in jail since his arrest the night of the murder.
Gauthier must avoid all contact with his half-brother, already convicted in the murder. He must also complete 1,000 hours of community service; write a letter of apology to Mangione's lover and to the citizens of Harris County; pass a high school equivalency test; attend community college; work; stay more than 150 feet from Mangione's lover, Kenneth Stern; stay away from guns and knives; and stay away from hate groups. Trial testimony linked the brothers to a hate group called the German Peace Corps. Gauthier denied being a member,although Bean had the group's initials tattooed on his arm.
Defense attorney John Donahue said he is confident that Gauthier will successfully complete his probation, but said the conditions were not easy.
Donahue said the no-contact rule is the toughest condition for his client, who is very close to his half-brother.
Writing the apology letters also will be difficult, he said. His client still claims he had nothing to do with killing Mangione. Ayers said the Voigt made it clear to Gauthier that if he slips up while on probation, the judge will send him to jail.
"These conditions are about as tough as you can get," Ayers said. "I have a feeling he's going to have some trouble down the line."
Ayers said he hopes Gauthier doesn't hurt anybody again, but he hopes he does end up in jail.
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12. WASHINGTON
ONE OUT OF FOUR COLLEGE STUDENTS ADMITS TO HARASSING GAYS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Nearly one-quarter of community college students who took part in a survey admitted to harassing people they thought were gay, a University of Washington researcher says.
The survey of nearly 500 students -- said to be the first of its kind -- was presented Sunday at the American Psychological Association convention. Previous studies had mostly focused on the victims of such crimes.
The study by forensic psychologist Karen Franklin found that 24 percent of those surveyed admitted to anti-gay name calling.
"Indeed, assaults on gay men and lesbians were so socially acceptable that respondents often advocated or defended such behavior out loud in the classrooms, while I was administering my survey," Ms. Franklin wrote.
Among men, 18 percent said they had physically assaulted or threatened someone they thought was gay or lesbian. Another 32 percent admitted they were guilty of verbal harassment. The figures were less for women.
Ms. Franklin's study, which did not identify the colleges of those surveyed, reported that almost half the students said they would assault again in certain circumstances and either lacked remorse or did not see anything wrong with their behavior.
Many explained their actions as self-defense, which Ms. Franklin said was based on their perception that gays are sexual predators.
Others were thrill seekers or simply went along with their peers.
Students who held back from attacking or harassing gays did not necessarily show more tolerance than the assailants. Many feared getting in trouble, she said.
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13. CANADA
Vancouver Gay Man Beaten to Death
By BARRY BROWN
TORONTO (AP) - A gay man was beaten to death over the weekend in a park in Vancouver, B.C., apparently the victim of a hate crime, police said.
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Aaron Webster, 41, was found near death by his best friend in Stanley Park in an area where gays cruise for casual sex, authorities said.
The friend, Tim Chisholm, tried to revive Webster but he died before help arrived early Saturday.
Police said Webster had been beaten with either a baseball bat or a pool cue by a group of three or four men.
"We've got nothing as far as a decent description of the suspects," police spokesman Scott Driemel said, adding that there were few leads in the case.
If Webster was killed because of his sexual orientation, it would be the first hate-motivated murder of a gay man in British Columbia, said Cpl. Mike Labossiere of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Hate Crime Unit.
An estimated 1,500 people rallied and offered prayers and poems Sunday in Webster's memory.
City Police Inspector Dave Jones, who attended the service, declared that Webster was the victim of "a hate crime, pure and simple."
Vancouver is generally considered safe and welcoming to gays, said Bill Coleman, a forensic pathologist and spokesman for the city's gay community.
However, Coleman said a poll showed that nearly half the gay men in Vancouver felt they had been victimized by prejudice at one time or another.
Chisholm said he was driving home from Stanley Park early Saturday when the headlights from his van illuminated a bloodied, naked body lying in a parking lot.
When Chisholm got out to investigate, he saw a man lying unconscious on the pavement, naked except for his hiking boots. The man's arms were covering his face as if he had been protecting himself.
Chisholm ran back to his van and called 911 from his cellphone to get an ambulance. The 911 operator asked Chisholm to go back to the body and check for a pulse.
"When I took his arm back, I realized who it was," Chisholm told people gathered for the memorial service.
Webster died in his arms while he attempted CPR, a tearful Chisholm said. They had been friends for 15 years.
"I'm saying, 'Aaron, come on Aaron. Just wake up for God's sake.' But he didn't. He just gasped a few times." Chisholm recalled.
Police and paramedics arrived minutes later, but were unable to save Webster.
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14. CANADA
1,500 mourn man killed in gay-bashing
Body found in park: Memorial turns into rally as police confirm hate crime
Ian Bailey
National Post
VANCOUVER - Hundreds of Vancouver residents gathered yesterday for an impromptu memorial service to remember a gay man killed over the weekend in a brutal beating that police are terming a hate crime.
Aaron Webster, 42, was found early Saturday near death in an area of Stanley Park frequented by gay men looking for sex. He died in the arms of one of his best friends, who happened upon him.
"He was gasping and I couldn't do anything," Tim Chisholm said yesterday after 1,500 people attended a march and rally in Mr. Webster's honour where anger at gay bashing was mixed with grief at his death.
"He just died right there," said Mr. Chisholm, his voice thick with emotion.
"His eyes were wide open. He was staring up at me."
Mr. Webster, naked except for hiking boots, had been beaten with either a baseball bat or pool cue by a group of three or four men, police said, citing witness accounts.
The budding photographer who also worked in a paint store was apparently trying to reach his car when he was attacked.
When Mr. Chisholm found his friend, he was sprawled on the ground, bruised and bloodied, with an arm slung over his face.
Earlier in the evening, Mr. Chisholm had chatted with Mr. Webster. Later, he went to check out an expected meteor shower. While leaving, he noticed a prone figure on the ground.
"I think the guy is drunk or passed out and I'm slapping him going, Wake up. Wake up,'" he said.
He called 911 and was advised to administer CPR. "It was at that point when I took his arm back that I realized who this was. This was Aaron. That just blew me away."
Mr. Chisholm said he did not know why Mr. Webster was in the area at the south end of Stanley Park, which is known for several trails where gay men seek sexual partners.
Detective Scott Driemel, a spokesman for the Vancouver Police Department, said the attack had the hallmarks of a hate crime because Mr. Webster was gay and nearly naked when he was found.
While there were several witnesses to the assault -- police won't say how many -- none have been able to give police a firm description of the assailants or even how many attackers there were.
"We've got nothing as far as a decent description of the suspects," said Det. Driemel.
Police are calling on any other witnesses to come forward and said any suspects that played a minor role in the attack would also be wise to contact the police.
"Some may have had much less of a role and we advise them to come forward sooner rather than later," he said.
Mr. Webster, who was single, was remembered as a generous, considerate man.
"He would have been here if it had been someone else," said his neighbour, David Parent, referring to the large turnout at the rally.
The police are warning the gay community away from parks at night due to the grisly attack.
The march began at Little Sisters, a venerable gay and lesbian bookstore in the city's west end, then proceeded in silence to an area of English Bay under police escort.
A senior Vancouver police officer told the crowd that investigators will crack the case.
"Our commitment to you is to find these people and bring them to justice," said Inspector Dave Jones, speaking from a stage that was shared at various points by a provincial Liberal politician, Mr. Chisholm and other speakers. Insp. Jones called the murder "a hate crime, pure and simple."
The fatal attack astonished Bill Coleman, a forensic pathologist who is a spokesman for the gay community on a committee that includes police and other municipal departments.
"I didn't expect this to happen in Vancouver," he said.
"Vancouver is generally a fairly safe city. Although there are less serious assaults on gay people, something as serious as murder tends to not happen here. I am very shocked."
Still, Mr. Coleman noted that one poll suggested nearly half of the gay men in the city considered that they had been victimized at one time or another.
Several speakers at the rally urged the community to speak out about such harassment, suggesting that was a first step to fighting it.
"We will neither forget Aaron and the horrific way in which he died nor will we be silent in our grief and outrage," said Reverend John Newcombe of St. John's United Church.
Lorne Mayencourt, an openly gay Liberal member of the legislature, said he himself had been the victim of a gay bashing -- a disclosure he made as he was heckled by some who wondered what the government would do to deal with the issue.
Others called for renewed efforts to educate teenagers about the gay community in order to cool anger that might inspire anti-gay violence.
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