The Reported Spike In Anti-LGBT Homicides Is Fake News

Jan 31, 2018 by

by Chad Felix Greene, The Federalist:

LGBT media outlets are implying the Trump administration is responsible for reports that the LGBT homicide rate doubled from 2016 to 2017. The media reports are citing an 86 percent increase in homicides, indicating a disturbing and sudden rise in violence. The details are laid out in a report from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs titled, “A crisis of hate a report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and Queer Hate Violence Homicides in 2017.” But a closer look at those details, as is often the case, reveals some problems with the conclusion drawn in the headline.

[…]  There were 27 transgender victims included in the report. The LGBT media tends to give a special spotlight for transgender murder victims in yearly collections meant to persuade the reader of a unique threat to this community. But according to the report, roughly 15 of the 27 crimes against transgender people have no suspect, motive or resolution. A victim is simply discovered in an ally or a street with no indication of what occurred. Fewer than half of all violent crime and property crimes (burglary or theft) are solved in the United States. Without sufficient evidence, the police are simply unable to make any clear determinations.

Of the remaining transgender victims, three were killed during police altercations. In all of those scenarios, the transgender individual was behaving erratically and aggressively towards police officers with a weapon. Of the others with murder charges associated, none were apparently motivated by the victim’s gender identity. Most of the crimes against transgender people appear to be random acts of violence, associated with sex work, or altercations between people who knew each other. One 17-year-old victim was killed by a romantic partner and their friends.

The next largest grouping of murders in the report relates to gay hook-up websites or apps. The report cites 45 percent of the known homicides of gay men were the result of online hook-ups. This scenario reflects the gay male community’s long-held fear of violence during anonymous sexual encounters going back to movies like “Cruising” (1980) and the death of Hollywood icon, Sal Mineo. “Cruising” featured a gay serial killer who targets gay men in known areas where gay men “cruise” for anonymous sex. Mineo was murdered in 1976 during a sexual encounter that turned violent in a cruising spot in Hollywood.

In 2016 there were several examples of gay men being lured to their deaths by men attempting to rob them or intentionally kill them. An Idaho man lured a gay man into the woods with the promise of sex before beating him to death, and four Texas men lured multiple gay men into robberies. One was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In another disturbing trend, as detailed in Vice in an article titled, “I Tried to Score as Much Free Stuff as I Could Using Grindr,” young gay men attempt to manipulate older gay men with the promise of sex for gifts. The article discusses three writers intentionally trying to scam people on hook up apps for fun.

Sadly, many young gay men listed in the report were last known to have met someone online and were later found murdered.

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