2012 saw the 4th highest murder rate of LGBTQ and HIV-affected people (LGBTQH) in history, according to the annual Hate Violence Report released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). The report analyzes statistics collected in 18 states about survivors and victims' age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and type of violence experienced in order to track trends in the violence directed at the LGBTQH community.
The overall LGBTQH homicide rate decreased by 16.7% from 2011, which had the highest homicide rate of all time. The overall rate of violence inflicted on LGBTQH people remained relatively consistent, with a 4% decrease from 2011. Some of the groups most likely to experience hate violence included transgender people (particularly transgender women), people of color (particularly transgender people of color), and gay men. Young people, homeless people, and people with disabilities were also disproportionately represented. In all reported homicides involving transgender people, the victims were women.
People of color, transgender people, and gender non-conforming people continued to experience higher rates of homicide in 2012. LGBTQH people of color represented 53% of total reported survivors and victims of all hate crimes, but 73.1% of homicide victims. Black and African-American people were particularly overrepresented in the homicide rates: over half of reported hate murders had Black or African-American victims, even though Black and African American people made up only 15% of total survivors and victims of hate crimes overall.
The percentage of reported disabled survivors and victims skyrocketed from 11% in 2011 to 40% in 2012, a dramatic increase that can probably be attributed to more accurate reporting of disability than in previous years. Homelessness also renders LGBTQH people more vulnerable to violence: 19% of respondents had been homeless at some point in their lives, and 11% had been evicted based on their gender identity or expression.
This report, as well as the recent string of violent hate crimes in New York, is a reminder that violence against the LGBTQH community, and particularly marginalized groups within that community, is an ongoing problem which is too urgent to ignore.
"Anti-LGBT violence is a reminder that our work in the LGBT community isn't done," said GLAAD National Spokesperson Wilson Cruz. "GLAAD is dedicated to elevating the stories of real people behind these statistics as a way to educate the media until violence against the LGBT community, and particularly transgender women of color, is completely eliminated from our society."
Read the NCAVP's annual Hate Violence Report