A new poll finds that half of us feel the we could be targets of a violent crime because we’re LGBTQ+
In the early seventies I went to college there and I was deep in the closet back then, a lot of national anti-LGBTQ+ was going on back then, there was Anita Bryant’s Save the Children campaign and the government purge of “gays” in government office. It was the height of the Lavender Scary and besides I could stop if I meet the right girl. So it was with a little surprise when I read this.
New poll finds about half of Rochester's LGBTQ community feels at risk of attack
The data is the latest from the Levine Center to End Hate's 'State of Hate"' survey, which polled people in the nine-county metro area.
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
By Justin Murphy
December 28, 2022
Nearly half of LGBTQ people in the Rochester area feel at risk of verbal or physical attacks, according to recently released survey data.According to the data:
- 50% of LGBTQ people fear a verbal attack and 45% fear a physical attack
- 63% know of a specific instance of discrimination, and 50% have witnessed one themselves
- 50% believe discrimination against LGBTQ people is problem and 32% say it has worsened in the last few years; among non-LGBTQ people, 8% believe it is a problem and 16% believe it has worsened
"We know that words can turn deadly, as we saw with the horrific mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs last month,” Karen Elam, the Levine Center's executive director, said in a statement. “We are continuing to find that the responses to our survey underscore the fear that members of minority groups in our community are feeling.”
[…]
She also noted that people of color who are LGBTQ are more likely to face discrimination than their white counterparts. One national poll from 2020, for example, showed that 68% of LGBTQ people of color reported negative or discriminatory treatment from a health care provider compared to 27% of white LGBTQ people.
That is what bias crimes do, make you fear going out and being yourself. It makes you afraid of any public display of affection. Trans people who are easily identified as trans worry about the reaction of others in their daily lives.
"When we walk out our doors, we’re just like anyone else," she said. "We just want to live our lives and not have to worry about whether we’re coming back home."
People talk about bias crimes, Club Q is an example of how a bias crime doesn’t just affect the individuals directly involved in the attack but also the whole community.
We can't deny any longer that they are targeting us specifically.
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