Got this off of the local Clarinet newsfeed. Copyright 1992 by UPI. Reposted with permission from the ClariNet Electronic Newspaper newsgroup clari.group.gays. For more info on ClariNet, write to info@clarinet.com or phone 1-800-USE-NETS. WASHINGTON (UPI) -- Violence against homosexuals increased by 31 percent in five U.S. cities last year, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force reported Thursday. More than 1,822 attacks against homosexuals, a record high, were reported in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York City and San Francisco, according to the Task Force's seventh annual report on the problem. ``Anti-gay violence continues to be a widespread and profoundly destructive plague upon the nation,'' said Kevin Berrill, the Task Force's anti-violence director. The statistics were based on incidents reported to homosexual victim service agencies in the cities. The type of attacks included murder, assault, police abuse, harassment, vandalism, threats and arson. New York City led in the number of incidents, with 592, up 42 percent from last year. Figures cited for the other cities: San Francisco, 473, up 11 percent; Minneapolis-St. Paul, 338, up 202 percent; Chicago, 210, up 6 percent; and Boston, 209, up 42 percent. Victim-assistance agencies attributed the increase to a combination of greater willingness on the part of homosexuals to report attacks and an overall rise in assaults. ``It's difficult to tease out which is the dominant variable,'' said Berrill. ``The problem is alarmingly pervasive,'' he added. ``The real message is not whether the numbers are up or down, but rather that we have an epidemic on our hands, one that is in dire need of a remedy.'' The Task Force conceded that police in the five cities listed only 362 crimes against homosexuals in 1991, but this figure was 41 percent higher than the previous year. Three of the five police departments also reported an increase in attacks on homosexuals. Berrill complained that the Justice Department's Community Relations Service, which trains law enforcement agencies throughout the nation on hate-crime issues, has failed to broaden its definition of such crimes to include those involving sexual orientation and religion. This change was required by a law passed last year, he said. ``The CRS is talking about hate crimes, but the ''G`` word and the ''L`` word are never mentioned. The CRS is actually undermining the intent of the Hate Crime Statistics Act.'' U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was a co-sponsor of the Hate Crime Statistics Act, said the Task Force report was particularly important in this presidential election year when ``a climate of hate -- if not being nutured -- is at least being tolerated in our country.'' The Task Force said that an atmosphere of anti-homosexual rhetoric in government, religion, entertainment and the media was creating an atmosphere conducive to anti-gay violence. They were particularly critical of anti-homosexual comments by Republican presidential candidate Patrick J. Buchanan and the characterization of homosexuals as criminals in such Hollywood motion pictures as ``Silence of the Lambs,'' and the soon-to-be-released ``Basic Instinct.'' Although the report only listed trends in five cities, Berrill said the pattern suggests that other U.S. cities and towns are experiencing similar increases. Detective Mike Brooks, coordinator of hate-crime incidents in Washington (which was not one of the cities studied) said he did not have statistics that could confirm or rebut a Task Force claim that anti-homosexual incidents were also up in the District of Columbia. ``One of the problems we have is getting the gay and lesbian community to report hate crimes to the police. So we really don't have an accurate statistical base to rely on.'' The detective said that if such incidents are on the increase nationally, the trend may be tied to the recession. ``It's widely believed that when the economy is down, there is an increase in all types of hate crimes.''