From the Archives of The Advocate.December 3, 1975: Are gays mere likely to be attacked than straights? As the first of Matthew Shepard's accused murderers goes to trial March 22, national attention is focusing on hate crimes against gay men and lesbians. More than 20 years ago, Advocate reporters Joe Baker, David Brill Brill or Bril, Flemish painters, brothers. Mattys Brill (mä`tīs), 1550–83, went to Rome early in his career and executed frescoes for Gregory XIII in the Vatican. , George Mendenhall, and Randy Shilts Randy Shilts (August 8 1951 – February 17 1994) was a highly acclaimed, pioneering gay American journalist and author. He worked as a reporter for both The Advocate and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as for San Francisco Bay Area television stations. addressed some people's belief that gays and lesbians are attacked and murdered at a higher rate than heterosexuals. Police officials from several cities denied any connection between sexual orientation sexual orientation n. The direction of one's sexual interest toward members of the same, opposite, or both sexes, especially a direction seen to be dictated by physiologic rather than sociologic forces. and murder: "[Detroit police] sergeant Glenn Apers feels sure that although there are some gay people among murder victims, it's not because they are gay. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." But The Advocate found that "there are no valid statistics on the sexual orientation of assault and homicide victims." The report also said that "compounding the problems of homophobic ho·mo·pho·bi·a n. 1. Fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay men. 2. Behavior based on such a feeling. [homo(sexual) + -phobia. police, biased press coverage, and fears among gay people is the attitude of some judges who often seem, by their light sentences for those who assault and kill gay people (as was typified last year by a Florida judge who congratulated the assaulters in court), to condone condone v. 1) to forgive, support, and/or overlook moral or legal failures of another without protest, with the result that it appears that such breaches of moral or legal duties are acceptable. crimes against gay people." Despite police denials, the magazine reported that "simple logic leads to a conclusion that gay people are indeed more frequently victims of assaults than their population would warrant." |
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