Anti-gay attacks up in 2008

The AP today picks up stats from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Project's on attacks against LGBT people.

The number of reported attacks against LGBT people increased 24 percent in 2007 over 2006, and "we anticipate the numbers are going to jump" in 2008, Stapel said. Officials are still crunching 2008 figures, which will be released next spring, she said.

While Stapel attributed the increase in part to more people reporting incidents, she believed there could be an actual spike in assaults because 2008 was an election year.

"Election years are always violent years for us because of wedge issues," Stapel said, referring to ballot measures this year in various states. "With increased visibility comes increased vulnerability to LGBT stereotypes and violence. We've seen some of the most violent hate crimes that we've seen in a while."

It's an interesting and troubling theory; I want to see more analysis. The data presented here alone isn't enough to support it; indeed, violence went up from 2006 (election year) to 2007 (non election year).