From: GLB-News Forwarding Subject: Idaho Statesman and AP News To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS Status: R GROUPS WARN OF HATE CRIMES Human rights advocates say initiative could lead to more crimes against gays. Kim Eckart The Idaho Statesman Feb 19, 93 A planned initiative by the Idaho Citizens Alliance to prohibit extending rights specifically to gays in Idaho may spawn an increase in hate crimes against them, human rights advocates say. Police and human rights agencies in Oregon and Colorado, where two such proposals were on the ballot last year, said the number of hate crimes against homosexuals jumped during the months before the election. In Oregon, where the measure failed, the number of crimes decreased after the election, while in Colorado, where the amendment passed, the number in incidents stayed high. And Idaho, police and human rights advocates agree, is not immune to hate crime increases. "Any state with that kind of measure on the ballot will experience that increase in violence and the number of hate crimes," said Capt. Dan Noelle of the Portland, Ore., Police Department. Noelle said the number of hate crimes, including those against minorities, doubled during the campaign for Measure 9--an amendment that would have prevented the state from granting homosexuals "minority status." It would have also required the state to describe homosexuality as "abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse." Most of the crimes were based on sexual orientation, Noelle said. "Most had to do with Measure 9. What we saw here was an emotional issue." But Lon Mabon, chairman of the Oregon Citizens Alliance and head of the Measure 9 effort, called hate crime data "too unreliable and precarious" to be linked to the OCA campaign. "Hate crimes are recorded on the basis of accusation--not according to how many were prosecuted and proven to be legitimate," Mabon said. The initiative's organizers probably were the target of more hate crimes than the gay community, Mabon said. But he said his group did not document the incidents. In Colorado, where Amendment 2 passed in November, statistics compiled by the anti-Violence Project of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Colorado, show an 87 percent increase in the number of antigay incidents from 1991-1992. And the number of incidents per month nearly quadrupled, from 12 to 45, after Amendment 2 passed, said Kat Morgan, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center. However, Colorado authorities can't verify those figures because hate crime reports are classified according to the type of crime rather than who the victim is, said Howard Gillespie, spokesman for the Colorado bureau of investigations. Will Perkins, chair of Colorado for Family Values--the group who sponsored Amendment 2, said the differences in statistics paint an inaccurate picture. "If police department figures don't coincide with those of other sources, then someone is wrong," Perkins said. "But if someone is maligning homosexuals, then they are breaking the law. We don't advocate violence against homosexuals." But Morgan said Colorado's amendment fostered intolerance. "Even if people believe they're voting against special rights," she said, "the measure could be perceived by some as a license to bash gays." Idaho could be next, she said. Only six hate crimes against gays and lesbians were reported in Idaho last year. In 1991, only three were reported. But that number does not reflect the number of incidents that go unreported, said Marilyn Shuler, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights commission. "Hate crimes are under reported because many homosexuals are in the closet, and they're unsure of how law enforcement will handle it," said Shuler. Idaho should brace for an increase in hate crime incidents-- and reports, said Brian Bergquist, head of Idaho for Human Dignity, the group formed to combat the Idaho Citizens Alliance initiative. "I think there's going to be an increase in violence, or at least harassment," Bergquist said. "But they (the ICA) create the environment that allows this to happen." But Kelly Walton, head of the idaho Citizens Alliance, said his group does not support violence and would be willing to negotiate with Idaho for Human Dignity to prevent any such incidents. "The ICA would be willing to sign on to a charter with our opposition on this issue, pledging a no-hate campaign on both sides," Walton said. "I'm opposed to violence." HATE-CRIME STATISTICS HARD TO DOCUMENT Kim Eckart The Idaho Statesman Keeping accurate hate-crime statistics is difficult because incidents often go unreported, law enforcement officials and human rights advocates agree. "Reporting exposes the victim to scrutiny," said Martin Hiraga, director of the Anti-violence Project for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C. "And the police are not equipped to provide the intensive services that victims' advocacy groups can provide." Violence against gays and lesbians increased during last year's campaigns for Oregon's Measure 9 and Colorado's Amendment 2, Hiraga said. In Oregon, Portland Police report an average of 25-30 hate crimes per month, including those against minorities. In October 1992, that figure jumped to 75. By the end of the year, police estimated more than 100 hate crimes specifically based on sexual orientation. In Colorado, where law enforcement statistics describe the type of crime but not the victim, 40 incidents were reported during the last three months of 1992, up from 32 in 1991. figures from the Anti-Violence Project of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Colorado tell a different story. An average of 12 hate crimes based on sexual orientation are reported to the Project each month. But in November 1992, 45 were reported. For the year, 166 incidents were reported, compared to 89 in 1991. Doona Wood, a crime data research analyst for the Idaho State Department of Law Enforcement, said she expects hate crime reports to rise during the next Idaho Citizens Alliance campaign.