National
FBI releases 2011 hate crimes report
Sexual orientation motivated more than 20 percent of all reported bias-motivated incidents last year.
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin speaks at Dupont Circle vigil for a lesbian couple who was shot in a Texas park in June. (Washington Blade file photo by Blake Bergen)
A Federal Bureau of Investigation report on Monday noted more than a fifth of all bias-motivated incidents in 2011 were motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation.
Statistics the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program published indicate 20.8 percent of the 6,216 bias incidents reported to the agency last year were motivated by sexual orientation, compared to 46.9 percent prompted by race. The agency noted in its 2010 report that 19.3 percent of reported incidents were prompted by anti-gay bias, compared to 47.3 percent that were racially motivated and 20 percent based on religion.
“The 2011 FBI hate crimes data is a sad reminder that even as we make great strides towards equality under the law, LGBT people [continue to] face dangers in America,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said. “We must rid our country of the violence that has devastated our community for far too long.”
The FBI released its report less than three weeks after an Alabama woman’s girlfriend’s brother allegedly attacked her in what some maintain was an anti-gay hate crime. (Mallory Owens told a reporter with WKRG in Mobile, Ala., after she left the hospital that Travis Hawkins, Jr., did not attack her on Thanksgiving night because of her sexual orientation.)
A 23-year-old gay Latino man was assaulted outside his Columbia Heights apartment on Oct. 27 in what D.C. police have categorized as a hate crime based on the victim’s sexual orientation and ethnicity.
Metropolitan Police Department statistics indicate there have been 42 bias-related crimes based on sexual orientation between January and October, compared to 35 over the same period in 2011. The MPD reports there have been nine anti-transgender crimes in the nation’s capital between January and October, compared to seven during the same period last year.
The latest FBI report does not include statistics on bias-related incidents based on gender identity and expression, but the agency will begin to collect them next year as outlined in the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act that President Obama signed in 2009. The FBI will begin to report them in 2014.
“The FBI’s hate crime report, like MPD’s, does not represent the actual occurrence of hate crimes,” Hassan Naveed, vice chair of Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence, told the Washington Blade. “There is mass under-reporting of all hate crimes — motivated by race or sexual orientation — since many people from underrepresented communities do not feel comfortable reporting these attacks to the police.”
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs in May reported the number of anti-LGBT murders in 2011 rose 11 percent from 2010. The agency noted 87 percent of the 30 anti-LGBT homicide victims were LGBT people of color, with trans women comprising 40 percent of those who lost their lives to anti-LGBT bias-motivated crimes.
“The one thing we may be seeing is the impact of the Matthew Shepard James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes law bringing attention to this issue,” NCAVP Executive Director Sharon Stapel told the Blade in response to the latest FBI report. “But we’re still dealing with large numbers of people who either don’t know how to report to the police or choose not to report to the police. I would say that even these numbers don’t represent the amount of hate violence people in the United States face.”
Federal Government
US Census Bureau testing survey on LGBTQ households
Agency proposing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity
The U.S. Census Bureau is seeking public comment on a proposed test of sexual orientation and gender identity questions on the American Community Survey. The test would begin this summer and continue into next year.
The Census Bureau published the request as a Federal Register notice. In its press release the agency noted that the ACS is an ongoing survey that collects detailed housing and socioeconomic data. It allows the Census Bureau to provide timely and relevant housing and socioeconomic statistics, even for low levels of geography.
As part of the process for adding new questions to the ACS, the Census Bureau tests potential questions to evaluate the quality of the data collected.
The Census Bureau proposes testing questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to meet the needs of other federal agencies that have expressed interest in or have identified legal uses for the information, such as enforcing civil rights and equal employment measures.
The test would follow the protocols of the actual ACS — with one person asked to respond to the survey on behalf of the entire household. These particular questions are asked about people 15 years of age or older. Households are invited to respond to the survey online, by paper questionnaire or by phone.
The current Federal Register notice gives the public a final opportunity to provide feedback before the Census Bureau submits its recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget for approval. The public may provide feedback through May 30 online.
The White House
Judy Shepard to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom
Nancy Pelosi is also among this year’s honorees
Beloved LGBTQ advocate Judy Shepard is among the 19 honorees who will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the U.S., the White House announced on Friday.
The mother of Matthew Shepard, who was killed in 1998 in the country’s most notorious anti-gay hate crime, she co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation with her husband Dennis to raise awareness about anti-LGBTQ violence.
The organization runs education, outreach, and advocacy programs, many focused on schools.
In a statement shared via the Human Rights Campaign, Shepard said, “This unexpected honor has been very humbling for me, Dennis, and our family. What makes us proud is knowing our President and our nation share our lifelong commitment to making this world a safer, more loving, more respectful, and more peaceful place for everyone.
“I am grateful to everyone whose love and support for our work through the years has sustained me.
“If I had the power to change one thing, I can only dream of the example that Matt’s life and purpose would have shown, had he lived. This honor reminds the world that his life, and every life, is precious.”
Shepard was instrumental in working with then-President Barack Obama for passage of the landmark Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009, which was led in the House by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who will also be honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom during the ceremony on Friday.
Also in 2009, Shepard published a memoir, “The Meaning of Matthew: My Son’s Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed,” and was honored with the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award.
“Judy Shepard has been a champion for equality and President Biden’s choice to honor her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom is a testament to what she’s done to be a force of good in the world,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement.
“A mother who turned unspeakable grief over the loss of her son into a decades-long fight against anti-LGBTQ+ hatred and violence, Judy continues to make a lasting impact in the lives of the LGBTQ+ community,” she said.
“It is because of her advocacy that the first federal hate crimes legislation became law and that countless life-saving trainings, resources and conversations about equality and acceptance are provided each year by the Matthew Shepard Foundation,” Robinson said. “We are honored that Judy is a member of the HRC family and know that her work to create a more inclusive and just world will only continue.”
Other awardees who will be honored by the White House this year are: Actor Michelle Yeoh, entrepreneur and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Jesuit Catholic priest Gregory Boyle, Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), former Labor and Education Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), journalist and former daytime talkshow host Phil Donahue, World War II veteran and civil rights activist Medgar Evers (posthumous), former Vice President Al Gore, civil rights activist and lawyer Clarence B. Jones, former Secretary of State and U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), former U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) (posthumous), Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, educator and activist Opal Lee, astronaut and former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center Ellen Ochoa, astronomer Jane Rigby, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero, and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (posthumous).
National
United Methodist Church removes 40-year ban on gay clergy
Delegates also voted for other LGBTQ-inclusive measures
The United Methodist Church on Wednesday removed a ban on gay clergy that was in place for more than 40 years, voting to also allow LGBTQ weddings and end prohibitions on the use of United Methodist funds to “promote acceptance of homosexuality.”
Overturning the policy forbidding the church from ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” effectively formalized a practice that had caused an estimated quarter of U.S. congregations to leave the church.
The New York Times notes additional votes “affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday.” Wednesday’s measures were passed overwhelmingly and without debate. Delegates met in Charlotte, N.C.
According to the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration, there were 5,424,175 members in the U.S. in 2022 with an estimated global membership approaching 10 million.
The Times notes that other matters of business last week included a “regionalization” plan, which gave autonomy to different regions such that they can establish their own rules on matters including issues of sexuality — about which international factions are likelier to have more conservative views.
Rev. Kipp Nelson of St. Johns’s on the Lake Methodist Church in Miami shared a statement praising the new developments:
“It is a glorious day in the United Methodist Church. As a worldwide denomination, we have now publicly proclaimed the boundless love of God and finally slung open the doors of our church so that all people, no matter their identities or orientations, may pursue the calling of their hearts.
“Truly, all are loved and belong here among us. I am honored to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church for such a time as this, for our future is bright and filled with hope. Praise be, praise be.”
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