Gay Hate Crimes

     There are many hate crimes that occur within the gay community to in America.  This can occur in not only homosexuals, but also in the lesbian community.  Most people associate lesbians with a "positive connotation", more so than seeing men together it is more acceptable, but they go through scrunity to.  For example "I was sitting at a traffic light, blocked in, and there was this guy in a pickup truck behind me and he got out of his truck with a shotgun and put it in the crack of the window, stuck it in and yelled "You're gonna die, queer." It scared me half to death. I didn't know what to do. I had nowhere to run, so I put the car in park and tried to crawl under the driver's seat." (Lesser, 1993, p. 39).  This violent threat was coming from a male which is suprising to me, because I would probably expect this more from a woman.
      It is said that their are more gay hate crimes than with other minorities. "Homosexuals are far more likely to be victims of a violent hate crimes than any other minority group in the United States, according to a new analysis of federal hate crime statistics in the latest issue of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report, released Nov. 22." (Anonymous, 2010, p.18). So, despite the fact that as a nation we are getting more tolerant of this lifestyle there are still many people opposed to gays being open and out their in the public.  This sometimes has to do deal with Godly issues and the clique of Adam and Eve not "Adam and Steve".
        Men are probably the most upset when they see any type of male affection towards another male that invokes anger in them. "Most men will admit that publicly demonstrating affection toward another man- even platonic affection - can incite from fellow men "the look." Often enough, that look precedes threats or much worse, as in the cases of Jose Sucuzhanay (murdered for walking arm-in-arm with his biological brother)" (Tapley,2010,p.8). This is sad that America is resorting to this type of hatred towards someone that has done no harm to them.


References:

Lesser, S. (1993). Violence against lesbians. 13(1), 39.

Ncavp anti-violence report shows decrease. (2010). 1847(689), 18.


Tapley , B. (2010). The male straitjacket. 8.