Report: Record 19 Gay Partner Homicides in 2011
LGBT anti-violence advocates say intimate-partner homicides in the gay community are way up this year compared to last–and that federal domestic violence laws need to change so they include gay and transgender victims.
JINDASURAT: This year, we are calling on Congress to pass an LGBTQ-inclusive Violence Against Women Act that protects survivors from service discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program spokesman Chai Jindasurat said during a press conference Wednesday that a record-setting nineteen LGBT intimate partner homicides were reported across the country in 2011, more than three times the number documented in 2010.
He said LGBT people under thirty were nearly two times as likely as the general population to experience intimate partner violence, while people of color were victims nearly four times as often.
The group wants LGBT people explicitly covered under federal domestic violence laws, so that—for example—gay male and trans female victims could not be turned away from abuse shelters that are now reserved exclusively for biological women.
-Chasen Stern
