Tuesday, November 11, 1997
Unspeakable acts
VIOLENCE Rise in gay hate-crime reports may be a positive sign
that victims are finally speaking out against perpetrators
By Carol McKay
Daily Bruin Staff
An activist’s nightmare: Knowing a problem exists, but being
unable to prove it.
This is the challenge that anti-hate-crime activists face daily
at both the national and local level. Victims just don’t report the
crimes.
"Sexual minorities are not reporting because they are terrified
that they’re going to get negative, if not nonproductive,
responses," said Sean Kosofsky, an administrative assistant and
anti-violence coordinator at the Triangle Foundation, a Michigan
organization dedicated to documenting gay hate crimes. "And they
have every reason to believe that is the case."
The major reason for the low number of reports is that people
don’t like being thought of as victims, Kosofsky noted. "There is a
total fear of being in the closet and having to confront your
community with the fact that this is happening."
Kosofsky said that statistically, 70 percent of the crimes go
unreported. "And it’s cyclical," he said. "Not reporting crimes
makes victims more often." This causes perpetrators to think they
can get away with the crime, so they commit it again.
Besides unreported crimes, there are other obstacles as
well.
Despite a 1990 law that mandates local records of hate crimes,
standards vary in terms of labeling incidents as "hate crimes." And
most states fail to recognize that crimes against a person’s sexual
orientation are a type of hate crime.
For the states that do acknowledge gay hate crimes by passing
laws against them, different classifications exist. According to
Kosofsky, crimes of opportunity and crimes of bias are lesser
offenses than hate crimes, because they lack the hate aspect.
"For crimes of opportunity, that means somebody commits a crime
against a gay person because they’re gay," Kosofsky said. "Same
with bias crimes. (The perpetrator) might think it would be easier
to get away with because the victim is less likely to report
it."
Hate crimes, however, are definitely more violent crimes, often
taking the form of brutal beatings and murders. "A lot of
aggression against genitals," Kosofsky said. "But hate crimes are
not as common on college campuses as they are in the general
public. The discrimination is a lot more subtle," he said.
"All one needs to do is look on a men’s bathroom wall," he said.
"People manifest their feelings in their own private cubby. They’re
just waiting for an excuse to unleash their feelings."
Despite the fact that California does distinguish gay hate
crimes, the situation at the local level is no different. Ronnie
Sanlo, director of UCLA’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered
student association LGBT and a recent transfer from the University
of Michigan, expressed similar concerns.
"There are varying definitions of the term," Sanlo said,
explaining that the standard definition of a hate crime is a crime
perpetrated against a person "because of a perception of a
characteristic including race, religion, gender, age and
others."
"And in some states – but not very many – sexual orientation,"
Sanlo said. But what LGBT is interested in is not only documenting
hate crimes, but recording discrimination within the classroom,
incidents of grafitti or verbal abuse, and even the numbers of gay
students at UCLA.
"We don’t have any place to document that data," she said,
referring to the student population’s gay percentage. "There are no
questions students must answer upon admission, so we have no idea
how many students are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered. And
it is such an important question."
According to Sanlo, without such valuable statistics, it is
difficult to acquire funding for programs aimed at gay students.
And without being confident about the numbers of gay hate crimes
committed each year, the problem is compounded.
In 1996, three incidents concerning sexual orientation were
reported to university police, according to Nancy Greenstein,
director of the UCPD’s community services. UCLA’s numbers are
slightly higher than other UC schools: Berkeley reported two,
Irvine reported one and Davis reported none.
Most universities in the UC system reported higher numbers of
gay hate crimes in 1996 than in 1995, but Greenstein feels that the
increase doesn’t necessarily reflect an increase in actual
crimes.
"We don’t have enough numbers to draw conclusions. The
statistics only tell part of the story. Going from zero to three
might actually be a good thing. It shows a higher level of
understanding in the community," Greenstein said.
Kosofsky, of the Detroit-based Triangle Foundation, agreed.
Nationally, numbers of reported hate crimes have increased 29
percent in the last year, he said, and that "that signifies that
people won’t take it any longer. I am happy to see an increase in
reportings."
Despite being unable to define either the size of the gay
population or the numbers of actual gay hate crimes, Sanlo is
hopeful of the situation.
"This institution is a good one in many ways, but doesn’t offer
partner benefits to same-sex couples. That’s a heterosexist
notion," she said. Sanlo explained that the word "heterosexist"
refers to the assumption that people are heterosexual, a form of
bigotry most often found in institutions.
Erez Levon, a second-year linguistics student who is chair of
UCLA’s Gay and Lesbian Alliance, feels that heterosexism at the
university is abundant.
"Homecoming, for example, is basically a heterosexist tradition.
Why do we crown a king and a queen and not two men or two women?
Like all the other (heterosexist beliefs), it’s ingrained in the
culture and society."
And the university has a long way to go. "For such a big
university that prides itself on being so diverse, UCLA is really
lagging. We have a queer community, albeit not very outspoken, but
things could be much better."
Sanlo, who is experienced in working with college communities,
speculates that UCLA might be like other campuses in the patterns
of hate crimes.
"If this is a typical campus," Sanlo said, "there are probably
more incidents in the athletic system and the Greek system. The
vast majority of (fraternity members) are heterosexual, but the
idea that a brother could be gay or bisexual is very
disturbing."
But Sanlo remains optimistic. "UCLA’s gifts are its diversity,"
she said. "We need to take advantage of them."