Update: Lesbians Attacked in Hate Crime

Written by Doug Riley

Tuesday, 02 August 2005

Kansas City, MO – The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), 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, is sending an update expressing outrage about the July 14 assault on two lesbians in Kansas City.

Two women were walking holding hands in the 39th street corridor of Kansas City when a woman jumped out of a black vehicle with a bat and hit one of the women on the head multiple times. The suspect fled after a tow truck drove by and flashed its lights. The Kansas City, Missouri police department (KCPD) was called to one of the victim’s home after the attack.

The initial police report did not indicate that the incident was an anti-LGBT bias crime even though the victims reported to the KCPD that anti-LGBT slurs had been yelled and were motivated because the two women were walking together holding hands. Since KCAVP’s press release, the KCPD has taken statements from both victims and are now speaking with and looking for witnesses to the crime. Additionally, the KCPD has now officially classified the incident as a bias crime. As a result, if an arrest is made and a conviction is made, the perpetrator’s penalty will be more severe.



“We feel the attention that KCAVP, the LGBT community, and its allies brought to this case helped the KCPD do a better job,” said Doug Riley, executive director of the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project. “We want to work with the police in the future to help all LGBT victims of violence, not just hate crimes. This case shows not only the KCPD but all of Kansas City that hate crimes happen in our hometown right where we live and work. Given this political and social climate, this type of violence will increase so law enforcement must swiftly respond to victims, believe them, and document the crimes as their agency guidelines state.”

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. For more information about KCAVP, visit http://www.kcavp.org/.