By DONNA DE LA CRUZ
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- As the media focused more attention on homosexuals
last year,
anti-gay violence and harassment also increased, a gay advocacy
group said.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs said Tuesday
that the number of such
incidents it counted around the country increased by 2 percent
in 1997 over the
previous year.
The coalition attributed the rise to publicity surrounding events
such as gay pride
celebrations in June, the bombing of a gay nightclub in Atlanta
and the episode of
``Ellen'' in which the TV character came out as a lesbian.
``Tragically, there appears to be a direct correlation between
the community's
heightened visibility and an upsurge in violence,'' said Christine
Quinn, executive director
of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
The coalition's figures are obtained from local gay groups that
track crimes against
homosexuals, bisexuals and people who cross gender lines in their
dress or physical
characteristics. The report is not based on police statistics
and only includes 14
metropolitan areas.
The coalition says it offers important information because, spokesman
Michael Rosano
said, ``People who are victims of bias-related violence will
call us before they call the
police.''
``Yes, someone should use some caution when looking at this report
and not feel it's a
complete map of the violence that's happening to us -- but you
can still draw some
conclusions about the trends in violence,'' said Jennifer Rakowski
of Community United
Against Violence in San Francisco.
According to the report, there were 2,445 documented cases of
anti-gay violence and
harassment last year in the 14 areas, which include New York,
San Francisco and Los
Angeles. The number of murders related to anti-gay violence dropped
to 18 in 1997
from 27 in 1996, the report said.
New York City had the most reports of anti-homosexual violence
(658), followed by the
San Francisco Bay area (402) and Los Angeles (350). More than
a third of the cases
involved harassment -- verbal or by mail or phone. About one-fifth
involved assault, and
close to a third intimidation.
New York Police Department figures show the number of gay bias
incidents in the city
dropping to 59 in 1997 from 61 in 1996. Police Commissioner Howard
Safir said the
coalition's figures lacked any uniform system of reporting.
Among the more brutal examples of harassment is that of a gay
Chicago man who
reported a year's worth of violent assaults by an elderly neighbor.
One night, he said,
she attacked him with garden shears, cut him 22 times and yelled
``die of AIDS...''.
Police response was indifferent to hostile, the report said, with
officers once threatening
to arrest the victim if he kept complaining. Eventually the neighbor
was charged with
misdemeanor assault.