National 2006 Lesbian and Gay Hate Crime Report Released; Kansas City Included in Report

Written by Doug Riley
Tuesday, 08 May 2007

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), Kansas City’s only nonprofit organization solely dedicated to providing emergency assistance, advocacy, and other services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and hate crimes in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, is included in the 2006 version of the anti-LGBT violence report published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) of which KCAVP is a member. The report showed a slight decrease in the number of reported incidents (-3%) and the number of reporting victims (-9%). KCAVP documented 12 victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes but an increase in anti-LGBT incidents to 27 in 2006, an increase of 15%.

“Even though we documented a lower number of victims in 2006, the fact is the violence is still happening. There is a history of FBI Uniform Crime Statistics reports not matching or even coming close to the reports of sexual orientation hate crime incidents. For example, in 2005 there were only 5 incidents reported in the Kansas City metro area where we documented 23. The 2006 UCR reports have not been released yet, but I anticipate a similar shortfall.” said Doug Riley, executive director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project. “Violence is still happening, and, given the conservative climate in both Missouri and Kansas most people do not feel safe reporting incidents of bias. We want the LGBT community to report bias incidents and hate crimes to us so that we can track them and take action if necessary.”

“We also view the reduced number of victims based on an agency focus on domestic violence in 2006. We also have noted a decline in numbers since 2004 due to anti-gay marriage debate in Kansas and Missouri have ended,” continued Riley. “We are focusing on hate crime education and awareness in 2007 including a hate crime awareness billboard campaign that will start on May 26. This campaign along with outreach we hope to increase our numbers and will continue to serve those victims who need advocacy, counseling, and support.”

"Despite the overall decrease in reported incidents, we are truly concerned about the increases in reports last year seen through much of the Midwest; as we know many of those states were battlegrounds in the anti-same-sex marriage efforts over the past several years, and those ongoing increases in violence against LGBT people are likely the ongoing impacts of those efforts and the environment they help create," said Clarence Patton, NCAVP leader and executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project. The report can be found at www.kcavp.org and at www.ncavp.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 eight counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area. For more information about KCAVP, visit www.kcavp.org.

NCAVP is a coalition of over 25 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 www.ncavp.org.