CA: Surge in anti-gay hate crime cases

[FreeState]

All the Pro-Prop 8 Christians keep claiming they are being attacked... well now we have the proof they are projecting...

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http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11921999

Surge in anti-gay hate crime cases

By Tracey Kaplan
Mercury News
Posted: 03/16/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT

Hate crime cases involving anti-gay sentiment shot up in Santa Clara County last year, a striking increase that a leading prosecutor attributes to controversy over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Anti-gay incidents accounted for more than half of hate-crime cases last year — 56 percent — a big jump from only 15 percent in 2007. There were 14 anti-gay cases out of 25 hate-crime cases in 2008, compared with only 3 out of 20 in 2007.

"My belief from having done this work for many years is that surges in types of hate incidents are linked to the headlines and controversies of the day,'' said Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, who is assigned to monitor hate crimes. "Marriage equality and Proposition 8 have been in the news, and we have seen an increase in gay-bashing.''

A hate crime is defined as a criminal act committed in whole or in part because of one or more of the following actual or perceived characteristics of the victim: race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability or association with a person or group with one or more of these characteristics.

[ccharles000]

1. sad

[cboy4]

2. You won't get many responses. People read this and

shrug their shoulders.

It doesn't affect their lives.

[1]

3. true that...

[Behind the Aegis]

4. Of course, there are also those who blame "loud-mouth" gays for the upswing.

You know, the whole idea of wanting equal rights, well, that just makes people hate you more because you aren't satisfied with what was thrown your way as you were tossed under the bus.

[espiral]

5. re:

Not true; I care, whether it affects me personally or not.

[FreeState]

8. Thank you - there are people like you here

and there is a lot of support, at times. But as you can see this post did sink - which is the case with most GLBT threads that dont deal with infighting over policy or blanket support threads.

[The Doctor.]

14. This will not sink.

It's too indicative of the inexorable demise of the forces of hatred. They are flailing out of sheer ignorance and panic, and they are lashing out. They are showing their true colors, and they will be seen for the animals they are.

They are losing in a very big way, and threads that expose the shitheads like those belligerent assholes in CA will rise very nicely, TYVM.

I'll help see to it. ;)

K+R

[espiral]

18. I just gave you a rec n/t

[dsc]

6. wish this were shocking

but it is the obvious consequence.

[AllentownJake]

7. Well when you run a campaign defining one group as not equal to another group

crimes against that group are going to increase. Its disgusting but not surprising.

[xchrom]

9. 8 responses and 4 recs? nt

[The Doctor.]

15. Dontcha' worry there.

This'll get the attention it deserves.

[Imagevision]

10. Sad to say but it is leadership (media etc.no coverage) is this 1956 or failure going nowhere!

[noiretextatique]

11. sickening, but not surprising

we were horrified by the gang rape of a lesbian woman in richmond, ca not too long ago.. the bay area one of the most gay-friendly areas in the united states, so if this is happening here, i can only imagine what's going on in other parts of the country.

[tangent90]

12. Makes me think of this

[tnlefty]

13. K & R

Heavy sigh.

[Raster]

16. I'll kick it! I've been bashed. I spent three weeks on a trauma floor because three punks...

...thought it would be OK to mug a gay guy. I have numerous shotgun pellets peppered up and down my body and a multitude of scars.

And to all those non-Gay, straight, heterosexuals that think they don't have a dog in this fight, think again!

[Starry Messenger]

17. Damn it.

I really worry about the direction this state is going in. :(

[The Doctor.]

19. Don't you forget....

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

As I said, the opponents of love are revealing their true nature. Their panic has set in, their flailing will put them out of civil society's favor, and they will be remanded to the same dust bin of history the racists are finally settling into... just not soon enough.

[Starry Messenger]

21. I hope you are right. n/t

[The Doctor.]

23. You know... I usually am.

:smoke:

[Starry Messenger]

24. LOL.

Me too. What a coincidence!

I'm just thinking back to growing up as young Starry in the Bay Area. It seemed more liberal to me then. But that's just an impression that I'm not really basing in hard numbers. I work in the same community I grew up in, and I feel like I see more homophobia in the young people now. It's depressing. There used to be a lot of theaters that showed Rocky Horror and other art house movies that broadened the horizons of people growing up here. Those all started to close in the early 90's and now I'm teaching the kids born in the early 90's.

I just wonder sometimes if there are correlations between the uptick in hate crimes like this and the lack of opportunity for exposure to other experiences.

[marmar]

20. Domestic terrorism.....Hate crimes are terrorism, pure and simple.....

n/t

[Raster]

22. Hate crimes ARE domestic terrorism and the religious bigots that are fueling the fire...

...deserve to be treated like the domestic terrorists they are!