Group: Gay bias killings highest since 1999

national advocacy group says the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs released its report Tuesday. It says last year’s 29 killings is the highest it has recorded since 1999. It documented the same number of slayings then.

The New York-based coalition says the overall number of victims who reported anti-LGBT violence in 2008 increased by 2 percent.

The coalition says its figures are more accurate than those from law enforcement agencies. As an example, the group says the FBI doesn’t record bias crimes against transgender people because gender identity isn’t covered by federal hate-crime law.

See Group: Gay bias killings highest since 1999 Houston Chronicle

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Gay, HIV groups call for end of Bush health care rules

(Washington) A coalition of 38 LGBT and HIV advocacy groups is calling for the removal of an eleventh-hour Bush Administration expansion of federal rules prohibiting discrimination against health care workers on the basis of religion.

The groups, which include Lambda Legal and the National Coalition for LGBT …

In Wake of Prop 8, Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend

RICHMOND — News this week of arrests in the Dec. 13 gang rape of a lesbian brought relief to many in the community, some of whom were so outraged that they led police to breaks in the case.

But even as the resolution is lauded, gay-rights advocates and local and national crime statistics portray a gloomy truth about hate crimes against people based on their sexual orientation.

Until the root causes of bias toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are addressed, “we’ll continue to have hate perpetrated against us,” said Shawna Virago, a program director for the San Francisco-based advocacy group Community United Against Violence.

The group reported 304 crimes against Bay Area gays in 2007, the latest year for which complete statistics were available. That amounted to an approximate 6 percent increase from 2006.

Nationally, the FBI recorded 1,265 crimes deemed to have been motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation in 2007, a slight increase from the 1,195 tallied a year earlier but a 24 percent jump from 2005 figures.

Data compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs — which counts the San Francisco group among its members — show national numbers to be considerably higher, from 1,486 incidents in 2006 to 1,833 the following year.

See Attack on gay woman in Richmond reflects continuing trend
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