Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Hate Violence Report Released

Written by Doug Riley

Wednesday, 28 April 2004

Kansas City, MO – The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) issued the preliminary “Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Violence in 2003” report yesterday. Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), a member of NCAVP, is Kansas City’s only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to providing emergency and ongoing services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and bias crimes in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The report is comprised of data and narratives from 11 areas across the United States. The NCAVP report is the most complete examination of such violence against LGBT people. KCAVP submitted a narrative instead of data for the report because KCAVP was being formed in 2003 and was not tracking anti-LGBT crimes.

The KCAVP narrative includes information from The Pulse, a health assessment of the LGBT community conducted in 2003 by the Kansas City, Missouri Health Department and the Lesbian and Gay Community Center of Greater Kansas City. The Pulse included a question about hate crimes. Eleven percent of the respondents indicated that they had been a victim of a hate crime in the past three years and eight percent of respondents stated they had been victims of targeted arrest/police harassment.

“The Pulse data is a baseline for what is happening in Kansas City,” says Doug Riley, Executive Director of KCAVP. “What is striking about the report is the increase in anti-LGBT violence in the second half of 2003 compared to the total numbers. This increase in LGBT violence is correlated with the Lawrence vs. Texas decision regarding sodomy laws, the gay marriage debate, and local issues such as the domestic partner registry in Kansas City. The increase proves we have a lot of work to do. This is why we have decided to begin tracking anti-LGBT violence in 2004.”

A version of the NCAVP report can be found at http://www.kcavp.org/ and at http://www.avp.org/.

KCAVP is a Missouri nonprofit corporation committed to providing services, advocacy and education for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and bias crimes within the five counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area.

NCAVP is a coalition of over 20 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victim advocacy and documentation programs located throughout the United States. In cooperation with its member organizations, NCAVP is committed to addressing the pervasive problem of violence committed against and within the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive (LGBTH) communities. For more information about NCAVP, visit http://www.avp.org/.