Brief Overview
The tragic and predictable consequence of anti-gay hate speech is violence targeted at the LGBT community.
According to the Florida Attorney General, hate crimes based on sexual orientation currently account for 22 percent of all hate crimes, surpassing religion as the second highest category. Race is still the most common motivation. When taking into account the size of the targeted communities, LGBT Floridians are at the highest risk of being targeted with a hate crime.
Florida law provides increased penalties for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and has been interpreted to include hate crimes targeting the transgender community as well. Adding explicit protections for gender identity and expression to our state hate crimes statute continues to be a priority.
Equality Florida worked to ensure that a majority of Florida’s representatives in Congress voted to pass the Matthew Shepard / James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act - the first federal protections for the LGBT community. Today, Florida ranks 4th in the nation, behind California, New York and Texas, in the number of people
protected by state hate crimes laws.
The tragic and predictable consequence of anti-gay hate speech is violence targeted at the LGBT community.
According to the Florida Attorney General, hate crimes based on sexual orientation currently account for 22 percent of all hate crimes, surpassing religion as the second highest category. Race is still the most common motivation. When taking into account the size of the targeted communities, LGBT Floridians are at the highest risk of being targeted with a hate crime.
