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The FBI has released their annual hate crimes statistics report for 2011 and the good news is that overall, reported hate crimes are down. Bad news: hate crimes toward LGBT people are up. And, only for LGBT people.
Zack Ford at Think Progress reports:
The Anti-Defamation League notes that the overall number of hate crime incidents decreased from 6,628 in 2010 to 6,222, the lowest number of reported hate crimes since 1994. The number of crimes directed against individual because of race, religion, and national origin all decreased, but the number of incidents targeting a person’s sexual orientation continued to increase.
As a result, sexual orientation hate crimes now constitute the second most frequent type of hate crime after race-based crimes.
The number of religion-based crimes decreased to 1,233, 63 percent of which were directed against Jewish people and institutions. The combined number of anti-Catholic and anti-Protestant crimes totaled 111, less than 9 percent of the number of anti-gay hate crimes. Conservatives who oppose LGBT equality often attempt to insinuate that Christians are just as victimized as gays and lesbians, but this data significantly undermines that argument.
[Bolding ours]
Frankly, wading through the numbers, they seem exceptionally low.
We already know made hate crimes are never reported. Ford notes that several large cities did not report at all last year.
Image via Pronews 7 video
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Related:
Homeless Tennessee Man Beaten Unconscious Because He’s Gay
People Who Fake Anti-Gay Hate Crimes Should Be Jailed So Bryan Fischer Can’t Lie
Fight Or Flight: Gay Texas Couple’s Home Vandalized with Death Threat
“He asked me: ‘Are you gay?’ And I said, ‘Yes. Is that OK?’†Then They Beat Him.
Hate Crime? CSU Football Players Use Anti-Gay Slurs In Violent Assault
Barber: “No Evidence†Of Mass Anti-Gay Violence. FBI: You’re Dead Wrong