Violence Against LGBT People
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people frequently face violence motivated by their sexuality or gender identity. Violence may be executed by the state, as in laws prescribing corporal punishment for homosexual acts (see homosexuality laws), or by individuals engaging in intimidation, mobbing, assault, or lynching (see gay bashing, trans bashing). Violence targeted at people because of their perceived sexuality can be psychological or physical and can extend to murder. These actions may be motivated by homophobia or transphobia, and may be influenced by cultural, religious, or political mores and biases.
In the modern Western world, where homosexual acts have been legal in almost all countries since at least the 1940s, violence against LGBT people is often qualified as a hate crime, motivated by homophobia, and is often connected with either religious or extremist political ideologies which condemn homosexuality and relate it to being weak, ill, feminine, or morally wrong. However, many countries outside the Western world, particularly where the dominant religion is Islam and in Africa and the Middle East, are currently very dangerous for LGBT people because of discrimination against homosexuals which influences both discriminatory legislation and physical violence. In Europe, the European Union's Employment Equality Framework Directive and Charter of Fundamental Rights offer some protection against sexuality-based discrimination.
Historically, state-sanctioned persecution of homosexuals was mostly limited to male homosexuality, termed "sodomy". During the medieval and early modern period, the penalty for sodomy was usually death. During the modern period (19th to early 20th century) in the Western world, the penalty was usually a fine or imprisonment. As of 2009, there remain 80 countries worldwide where homosexual acts remain illegal (notably throughout the Middle East, South Asia and in most of Africa, but also in much of the Caribbean and Oceania) including five that carry the death penalty.
Read more about Violence Against LGBT People: State-sanctioned Violence, Criminal Assault
Famous quotes containing the words violence and/or people:
“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”
—Malcolm X (1925–1965)
“Your child...may not call you or other people names.... Don’t be tempted to gloss over this issue. You may be able to talk to yourself into not minding being called names, but this decision may come back to haunt you in later years. If you let a preschooler speak disrespectfully to you now, you’ll have a much harder time of it when your child is a preteen and the issue resurfaces, which it is likely to do then.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)