Prop 8 leads to surge in hate crime
March 17th, 2009
Homophobic hate crime has increased in some parts of the USA as a direct result of last year’s anti-gay marriage legislation, officials are warning.
Santa Clara County in California saw an increase in anti-gay hate crime of 56% compared to the previous year.
14 of the 25 hate crimes reported in 2008 were motivated by anti-gay sentiment, compared to 3 in 20 of the hate crimes reported in 2007.
Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, who is assigned to monitor hate crimes, told the Mercury News that the figures were linked to the recent move to ban gay marriage in California.
“My belief from having done this work for many years is that surges in types of hate incidents are linked to the headlines and controversies of the day,” said Boyarsky.
“Marriage equality and Proposition 8 have been in the news, and we have seen an increase in gay-bashing.”
52% of Californians voted for Proposition 8 in November 2008, which reversed the state’s previous legislation allowing gay marriage.
“When there’s a lot more information about gays and lesbians on TV or in the news, it brings out the worst in people who have an inherent bias against groups they don’t belong to,” said Leslie Bulbuk, president of BAYMEC, a political action group representing the LGBT community.
“It seems like visibility makes people come out of the woodwork.”
Comparable data will not be available from other Californian counties until July.
Oh Gosh, Proposition 8 is hell. Removing a civil right, so it is no longer promoted within the eyes of the law, is almost likened to justifying a narrow-minded and prejudgemental attitudes that may already exist within a society, because it is reinforcing them. It is no surprise, then, that when anti-gay legislation is introduced, that there are some people, unfortunately, who are willing to sustain homophobia by carrying out hate crimes just because of what the law says about that particular group of people- in this case, homosexuals. What is the motive behind proposition 8, anyway? I don’t see it as much of a shock as there is correlation between the hate crimes and the anti-gay legislation that is (hopefully to not) be in place.
thefeministingpalace ∼ March 17th, 2009 11:38 pm