hate crimes

Rape is back in the headlines. A documentary about rape in the military, The Invisible War, was nominated for an Oscar. Updated Department of Justice stats on just how many women are raped in America were released in late February. The Steubenville rape trial ended in conviction on March 17.

Anti-gay incidents in hate crime reports jumped from 15 percent in 2007 to 56 percent in 2008. The reason: more fall out from Prop 8.

A lesbian couple in Parker, Colo., says they have been the victims of a hate crime — at their home. On Friday, Aimee Whitchurch and Christel Conklin went out to their garage in the condo complex where they live and found the message “kill the gay” spray-painted on the door. The next day, they found a noose on their doorstep.

Police say nine people, ranging in age from 12 to 19, attacked and robbed a gay man as he walked home alongside a Springfield, Mass., park Tuesday morning, the Advocate reports.According to Springfield Police sergeant John Delaney, Shay Andre Edwards, 19, was arrested along with four boys and four girls, all of whom were underage, and charged with unarmed robbery and violation of civil rights with injury.

This year Indiana University set a record for enrollment of international and minority students, so many students are surprised to hear reports of what is said to be a racially motivated attack. Police are investigating details of an attack on a group of students Sunday morning on the IU campus. After a heated exchanged following the initial racial slurs, two of the students were beat up, and another two were robbed. The suspects took an iPad, an iPod and headphones. 

Eight people accused in what some are calling one of the city's most brutal hate crimes.

Oregon’s Attorney General John Kroger launched a new website dedicated to helping the public report suspected hate crimes in the region. People can file their report confidentially and in a matter of minutes, all online. The site is aimed at making it easier for citizens to report and law enforcement to track all reported hate crimes.

The Hate Crimes Bill passed in the House of Representatives Wednesday.  The bill passed despite argument from opponents like Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, who called Matthew Shephard's murder "a hoax," suggesting his brutal murder in 1997 was part of a robbery and had nothing to do with his being gay.

Students rallied Thursday night at two Ohio universities to protest a recent attack on two gay men and promote greater acceptance of LGBT people. The rallies, at the University of Cincinnati and Miami University in Oxford, were in response to an attack that occurred early in the morning of March 24. Miami student Michael Bustin and UC student Adam Voegele were holding hands as they walked home from an event on the Miami campus when they were attacked and beaten by four men who yelled antigay slurs. No arrests have been made.

A New York man has been convicted of a hate crime for beating an Ecuadorian immigrant to death because he thought the victim was gay.  Keith Phoenix was found guilty in a Brooklyn court Monday in the fatal 2008 beating of José Sucuzhañay. Phoenix and a friend assaulted Sucuzhañay after mistaking him and his brother, Romel Sucuzhañay, as a couple.

While hate crimes dropped overall in Los Angeles County last year, bias crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents has increased, according to a new report.

John Berry, the highest ranking gay official in the Obama administration, tells The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld in an exclusive interview that the Obama administration hopes to "secure secure passage of Hate Crimes this coming week,"which would provide protection for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The U.S. Senate has decided to pass hate crimes legislation as an amendment to another bill instead of a standalone piece of legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

A 17-year-old lesbian was attacked on Thursday night in Calgary, Canada, and police are considering the assault a possible hate-crime, reports Calgary's CTV News.

A Palm Springs, Calif. couple has been charged with battery as a hate crime after a violent dispute over a parking space against a gay couple. Russell Bates, 24, and Abigail Sheehy, 19, were arrested May 22 after being identified from photographs taken by the victims, two male domestic partners aged 63 and 45.

Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri vetoed a bill which would have extended hate crime protections for victims of crimes based on their gender identity and expression. Carcieri said the hate crime did not need to be expanded because it already includes protections for discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.