2016 was the deadliest year ever for LGBTQ people, and not just because of Pulse

gaywrites:

This week, the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) released its 20th annual report tracking anti-LGBTQ violence in the 11 states where it has local chapters (Arizona, California, Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Virginia, Vermont, and Wisconsin).

NCAVP found that 2016 was the deadliest year for LGBTQ people since the organization began tracking this type of violence – and that it would have been even if the shooting at Pulse in Orlando hadn’t happened. 

Even without counting the 49 victims of the Orlando shooting as part of the total, there was still a 17 percent rise in anti-LGBTQ homicides, from 24 in 2015 to 28 in 2016. This was the highest number of victims recorded since NCAVP began publishing the report 20 years ago.

Among these, victims were more likely to be people of color, transgender or gender nonconforming, and below the age of 35. Of the 28 homicides NCAVP reported, 61 percent were transgender women of color.

The report also collected information about more than 1,000 non-deadly acts of what it called “hate violence,” ranging from harassment and threats to physical violence, as well as instances of state-sanctioned mistreatment.

The NCAVP report also highlighted failures on behalf of the authorities in dealing with reports of violence. In 2016, 41 percent of survivors interacted with law enforcement as a result of the violence that they experienced and, of those, 35 percent of them found police to be indifferent and 31 percent said they were hostile.

Some people reported instances of police misconduct following the reports, including excessive force, unjustified arrest, entrapment, and raids. According to the NCAVP, black people who reported violence were 2.8 times more likely to experience excessive force from police than survivors who did not identify as black.

“LGBTQ communities cannot solely rely on hate crimes legislation and the criminal legal system, as this system is a source of violence for many communities,” the report said.

We have so much work to do. So much.