Violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered(LGBT) can occur either at the hands of individuals or groups, or as part of governmental enforcement of laws targeting people who are seen to violate heteronormative rules. People who are merely perceived to be LGBT (but who are actually not) may also be targeted.
Anti-LGBT violence can include threats, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, rape, torture, attempted murder, or murder.
State-sponsored violence
Sexual relations between individuals of the same sex have frequently been repressed by the state under pain of mutilation and death. Such events (represented as sodomy) took place in Europe from the fifth to the twentieth centuries, and in Muslim countries from the beginning of the Muslim era up to and including the present day. Among the states that have historically used the death penalty to enforce compulsory heterosexuality are:
Present-day countries where homosexuality is still punishable by death:
See Homosexuality laws of the world
Individual violence
Individuals, singly or in groups, have at times taken it upon themselves (usually in contravention of the law) to repress those manifesting variant sexual behavior. In some legal jurisdictions in the United States, these acts may be legally classified as hate crimes, which increases the resulting penalty if convicted. In some situations, gay, lesbian, and bisexual people have flirted with their attackers, believing them to be interested in a homosexual encounter or relationship.
Some notable incidents of hate-related assaults include:
- The American serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a self-identified bisexual and himself convicted of sodomy and imprisoned, killed 33 men between 1972 and 1978, mostly male prostitutes and some teenage boys he employed.
- The assassination of Harvey Milk, a San Francisco city supervisor (1930 – 1978)
- Jeffrey Dahmer, an American serial killer and cannibal, and himself homosexual, killed 17 men between 1978 and 1991, mainly homosexual Black men.
- Tennessee Williams was the victim of a gay-bashing in January 1979 in Key West, being beaten by five teenage boys, but he was not seriously injured. The episode was part of a spate of anti-gay violence inspired by an anti-gay newspaper ad run by a local Baptist minister. Some of his literary critics spoke ill of the "excesses" present in his work, but these were, for the most part, merely attacks on Williams' sexuality.
- The fatal stabbing of James Zappalorti, a gay Vietnam veteran (1945 – 1990)
- The rape and later murder of Brandon Teena, a transsexual man (1972 – 1993)
- The beating death of Matthew Shepard, a gay student (1976 – 1998)
- The bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub by David Copeland in 1999
- One notorious incident of gay-bashing occurred on September 22, 2000. Ronald Gay entered a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia and opened fire on the patrons, killing Danny Overstreet and injuring six others. Ronald said he was angry over what his name now meant, and deeply upset that three of his sons had changed their surname. He claimed that he had been told by God to find and kill lesbians and gay men, describing himself as a "Christian Soldier working for my Lord". [1]
- The non-fatal stabbing of Bertrand Delanoë, a gay politician, in 2002
- The killing of Gwen Araujo, a transsexual woman (1985 – 2002)
Gay-bashing is occasionally committed against heterosexuals who are merely perceived to be gay. Prominent incidents include:
There are also urban myths and unconfirmed stories told about gay-bashing, often devised to make a point. For instance:
- A man was shot to death in an Iowa bar because he was standing quietly in a corner holding a purse. He was perceived as an unwelcome gay man; in actuality, he was holding the purse for his wife, who was in the restroom.
See also
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