A new report
released by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law
shows that the rate of bias crimes committed against
lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals is comparable to that
of other groups already covered by federal hate-crimes
laws. The "Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across
Protected and Unprotected Groups" report shows that
on average, 13 in 100,000 gay men, lesbians, and
bisexuals per year report being the victim of a hate
crime, compared to eight in 100,000 African-Americans, 12 in
100,000 Muslim Americans, and 15 in 100,000 Jewish
Americans.
"Often
people try to pass off [the lack of legal protection for
gays] as 'Oh, it's not as big a problem
as race-based hate crimes,' " says Rebecca
Stotzer, a research fellow at the Williams Institute.
"But when you actually look at the rates and
you think of it as a risk per person, you can see that
the numbers are actually much more even between groups that
are protected versus those that are not."
The new report
was based on a 2004 study by Williams Institute faculty
chairman William Rubenstein, but current hate-crimes
legislation before Congress and the availability of
more data prompted an update to the report. The U.S.
Senate is presently considering the Matthew Shepard Act,
which would extend legal protections to LGBT people; an
identical bill passed the House of Representatives
last month.The bill
proposes expanding current federal hate-crimes laws to
include actual or perceived sexual orientation,
gender, gender identity, and disability.Current law
identifies only race, color, religion, and national
origin as protected categories.
"This
report's findings provide a new perspective that should
inform policy makers who are deciding whether to
include hate crimes based on sexual orientation and
gender identity in federal hate-crime laws," noted
M.V. Lee Badgett, research director of the Williams
Institute. "The numbers show that hate crimes remain a
serious problem for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and
transgender communities." (Padraic Wheeler, The
Advocate)
