Remembering and Honoring Pulse

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• Recordando y honrando a Pulse: El sesgo anti-LGBTQ+ y las armas están acabando con la vida de innumerables personas LGBTQ+

Hate, Violence, and Stigma against the LGBTQ+ Community

Bias-motivated crimes are a real, frightening problem in the United States, and LGBTQ+ people continue to be targeted because of who they are. The Southern Poverty Law Center found that the number of anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups increased by 43 percent from 2018 to 2019.¹Southern Poverty Law Center, “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2019,” March 18, 2020, https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/03/18/year-hate-and-extremism-2019. Following a slight decline in 2020, the number was unchanged in 2021, with 65 groups focused on anti-LGBTQ+ legislative priorities.²Southern Poverty Law Center, “Hate Map,” accessed June 2, 2022, https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map?ideology=anti-lgbt. Queer communities have been the subject of targeted attacks in the media, at public events, and even state legislatures. The result is a deadly environment where LGBTQ+ people fear for their safety. Nearly 1 in 3 LGBTQ young people said their mental health was poor most of the time or always due to anti-LGBTQ policies and legislation.³The Trevor Project, “2023 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth and Mental Health,” May 2023, https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023. Some states across the country have been advancing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation while simultaneously dismantling their gun safety laws. Hate is far more deadly when armed with a gun.

25k+

In an average year, more than 25,000 hate crimes in the US involve a firearm—69 a day.  

Everytown Research analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). A yearly average was developed using 12 years of the most recently available data: 2010 to 2021.

On an average day there are 69 hate crimes with a firearm, accounting for 4 percent of all hate crimes.⁴Everytown analysis of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). A yearly average was developed using 11 years of the most recently available data: 2010 to 2021. During this period, there were 6,668,159 hate crimes, 276,308 of which involved a firearm.

It’s not only the LGBTQ+ community that is affected by hate-fueled violence. Bias-motivated crimes based on race, religion, nationality, disability, and gender remain at troublingly high levels, and LGBTQ+ people hold many of these identities as well.

In June 2015, a white supremacist opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, killing nine Black worshippers.⁵Jason Horowitz, Nick Corasaniti, and Ashley Southall, “Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston,” New York Times, June 17, 2015, https://nyti.ms/2uGcqDb. In October 2018, a gunman who had expressed anti-Semitic and white supremacist views attacked worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with an assault-style rifle and other firearms, murdering 11 people and wounding at least six others.⁶Trip Gabriel, Jack Healy, and Julie Turkewitz, “Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre Suspect Was ‘Pretty Much a Ghost,’” New York Times, October 28, 2018, https://nyti.ms/3akbpsv. In April 2019, an anti-Semitic gunman opened fire at a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one worshiper and wounding three others.⁷“Poway Attack Illustrates Danger Right-Wing Extremists Pose to Jews, Muslims,” Anti-Defamation League, May 2, 2019, https://bit.ly/3z33hn2. In August 2019, a white nationalist drove 10 hours to a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where he killed 23 people and wounded 23 others.⁸John Eligon, “The El Paso Screed, and the Racist Doctrine behind It,” New York Times, August 7, 2019, https://nyti.ms/3raDRBr; Yasmeen Abutaleb, “What’s Inside the Hate-Filled Manifesto Linked to the Alleged El Paso Shooter,” Washington Post, August 4, 2019, https://wapo.st/3McPb8P. In May 2022, hateful racism against Black people motivated a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, resulting in 13 people shot, 10 fatally.⁹Mark Morales, “Buffalo Mass Shooting Suspect to Be Arraigned Thursday on 25 Counts, including Murder,” CNN, June 2, 2022, https://cnn.it/3tcFO2o. And most recently, Club Q, an LGBTQ+ bar in Colorado Springs, was targeted in a mass shooting that killed 5 people and wounded 17 others.¹⁰City of Colorado Springs Police Department “Update to Shooting at Club Q – Victim Update,” November 28, 2022, https://coloradosprings.gov/police-department/article/news/update-shooting-club-q-victim-update.

But too many tragedies don’t get the attention and action they should. LGBTQ+ youth are also more likely than non-LGBTQ+ youth to be exposed to violence in their communities during childhood and adolescence. Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) analysis of public-use data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) found that over a quarter (27 percent) of LGBQ youth have witnessed community violence, defined as seeing someone “get physically attacked, beaten, stabbed, or shot in your neighborhood.” LGBQ youth were significantly more likely to have experienced this than heterosexual youth.¹¹Christopher R. Harper et al. “Witnessing Community Violence, Gun Carrying, and Associations with Substance Use and Suicide Risk Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021,” MMWR Supplements 72, no. 1 (2023): 22–28, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7201a3. And in schools, 8 percent of LGBQ youth, compared to 6 percent of heterosexual youth, were threatened or injured with a weapon.¹²Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Youth Risk Behavior Survey: Data Summary & Trends Report, 2011–2021,” 2023, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Summary-Trends_Report2023_508.pdf.

Across different LGBTQ+ populations, the risk for violence is higher than in straight and cisgender populations. Lesbian and gay people are more than twice as likely to experience violent victimization as straight people. Transgender people are 2.5 times as likely to be victims of violence as cisgender people. And, bisexual people were seven times as likely to experience violent victimization as straight people.¹³Jennifer L. Truman and Rachel E. Morgan, “Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2017–2020,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2022, https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvsogi1720.pdf.

The harm and trauma of hate-motivated violence reach far beyond just the direct victims. News of a violent attack on a marginalized person can feel like an attack on the entire community. Research shows that following the Pulse nightclub shooting, LGBTQ+ individuals across the country reported experiencing emotional distress and said they would be less likely to attend safe spaces like LGBTQ+ nightclubs.¹⁴Julie M. Croff, “Hidden Rainbows: Gay Bars as Safe Havens in a Socially Conservative Area since the Pulse Nightclub Massacre,” Sexuality Research and Social Policy 14 (2017): 233–40, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-017-0273-1; Skyler D. Jackson, “‘Connection Is the Antidote’: Psychological Distress, Emotional Processing, and Virtual Community Building among LGBTQ Students after the Orlando Shooting,” Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 4, no. 2 (2017): 160–68, https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/sgd0000229; Menachem Ben-Ezra et al., “Shattering Core Beliefs: Psychological Reactions to Mass Shooting in Orlando,” Journal of Psychiatric Research 85 (2017): 56–58, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.09.033; Christopher B. Stults et al., “Perceptions of Safety among LGBTQ People following the 2016 Pulse Nightclub Shooting,” Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity 4, no. 3 (2017): 251–56, https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/sgd0000240.

Gun Violence and LGBTQ+ People

Homicide

The gun homicide rate in the United States is 26 times higher than that of other high-income countries.¹⁵Everytown Research analysis of the most recent year of gun homicides by country (2013 to 2019), GunPolicy.org (accessed January 7, 2022). Our country’s gun violence epidemic has taken an enormous toll on the LGBTQ+ community. From the Pulse shooting in Orlando in 2016, to youth suicides and anti-trans violence across the country, our community has suffered terribly as a result of our nation’s inadequate gun safety laws.

13%

13 percent of the trans population in the US is estimated to be Black.

UCLA Williams Institute, “How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?” June 2022, https://bit.ly/3RD9Q8M 

67%

67 percent of known trans homicide victims were Black women.

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, Transgender Homicide Tracker, 2017–2022.

Last updated: 6.13.2023

Transgender and gender-expansive (GE) people are uniquely impacted by gun violence. An analysis of Everytown’s Transgender Homicide Tracker found that homicides of trans and gender-expansive people in the United States and Puerto Rico have been troubling high for the last several years. Between 2017 and 2022, there were 222 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people, with 2021 standing out as a particularly deadly year.¹⁶Everytown for Gun Safety, Transgender Homicide Tracker, six-year count: 2017–2022. During this period, 74 percent of the trans people killed were killed with a gun. At the same time, lawmakers in states across the country have put forward record numbers of anti-trans bills¹⁷ACLU, “Legislation Affecting LGBTQ Rights Across the County,” accessed June 3, 2022, https://www.aclu.org/legislation-affecting-lgbtq-rights-across-country; Matt Lavietes and Elliott Ramos, “Nearly 240 Anti-LGBTQ Bills Filed in 2022 So Far, Most of Them Targeting Trans People,” NBC News, March 20, 2022, https://nbcnews.to/3Q0aMEv. along with dangerous gun bills. It creates an environment ripe for deadly gun violence fueled by hate. Anti-trans violence, and specifically anti-trans gun violence, is concentrated against the Black community. While just 13 percent of the trans population in the United States is estimated to be Black,¹⁸UCLA Williams Institute, “How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?” June 2022. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/. 67 percent of known trans homicide victims that were killed with a gun were Black women.¹⁹Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, Transgender Homicide Tracker, 2017–2022. This database tracks all homicides of transgender or gender-expansive victims. “Transgender (trans) and gender-expansive (GE)” refers to any person who lived as a gender different than what was ascribed to them at birth. The term “homicide” includes shootings by police.

Suicide

90%

90 percent of suicide attempts with a gun are fatal, while 4 percent of those not involving a gun are fatal.

Andrew Conner, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller, “Suicide Case-Fatality Rates in the United States, 2007 to 2014: A Nationwide Population-Based Study,” Annals of Internal Medicine 171, no. 12 (2019): 885–95. 

Studies show that LGBTQ+ people, especially LGBTQ+ youth, are at a higher risk of contemplating and attempting suicide.²⁰Sherry Everett Jones et al., “Mental Health, Suicidality, and Connectedness among High School Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Supplement 71, no. 3 (April 2022): 16–21, https://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7103a3; Asha Z. Ivey-Stephenson et al., “Suicidal Ideation and Behaviors among High School Students—Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2019,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Supplement 69, no. 1 (August 21, 2020), http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su6901a6; Michelle M. Johns et al., “Transgender Identity and Experiences of Violence Victimization, Substance Use, Suicide Risk, and Sexual Risk Behaviors among High School Students—19 States and Large Urban School Districts, 2017,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 68, no. 3 (January 25, 2019): 67–71, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6803a3. And access to a firearm triples the risk of suicide death.²¹Andrew Anglemyer, Tara Horvath, and George Rutherford, “The Accessibility of Firearms and Risk for Suicide and Homicide Victimization among Household Members: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” Annals of Internal Medicine 160, no. 2 (2014): 101–10, https://doi.org/10.7326/M13-1301. Most people who attempt suicide do not die—unless they use a gun. Ninety percent of suicide attempts with a gun are fatal, while only 4 percent of attempts not involving a gun are fatal.²²Andrew Conner, Deborah Azrael, and Matthew Miller, “Suicide Case-Fatality Rates in the United States, 2007 to 2014: A Nationwide Population-Based Study,” Annals of Internal Medicine 171, no. 12 (2019): 885–95, https://doi.org/10.7326/M19-1324. In fact, nearly six out of every 10 gun deaths in the United States are suicides.²³Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of the most recent available data: 2018 to 2022. According to the 2015 US Transgender Survey, 40 percent of transgender people report having attempted suicide in their lifetime, nearly nine times the national average.²⁴Sandy E. James et al., “The Report of the 2015 US Transgender Survey,” National Center for Transgender Equality, December 2016, https://bit.ly/3zczUC8. What’s more, the Trevor Project’s 2023 survey of more than 28,000 LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 to 24 found that 41 percent of them seriously considered a suicide attempt in the past year and nearly one in five transgender and nonbinary youth had attempted suicide. Additionally, LGBTQ+ youth of color reported higher rates of suicide attempts than their white peers.²⁵The Trevor Project, “2023 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth and Mental Health,” May 2023, https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023/.

These data imply that this epidemic of firearm suicide could have a disproportionate impact on transgender and adolescent members of the LGBTQ+ community. Members of the LGBTQ+ community are at greater risk due to the impact that social stigma, family rejection, bullying, harassment, and abuse have on their well-being.²⁶Jun Sung Hong, Dorothy L. Espelage, and Michael J. Kral, “Understanding Suicide among Sexual Minority Youth in America: An Ecological Systems Analysis,” Journal of Adolescence 34, no. 5 (2011): 885–94, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.01.002; Laura Kann et al., “Sexual Identity, Sex of Sexual Contacts, and Health-Related Behaviors among Students in Grades 9–12—United States and Selected Sites, 2015,” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Surveillance Summaries 65, no. 9 (August 12, 2016): 1–202, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.ss6509a1; The Trevor Project, “Suicide Risk Factors,” July 16, 2021, https://bit.ly/325IIaQ; Joanna Almeida et al., “Emotional Distress among LGBT Youth: The Influence of Perceived Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 38, no. 7 (2009): 1001–14, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9397-9. However, young LGBTQ+ people who had access to affirming homes, schools, community events, and online spaces reported lower rates of attempting suicide compared to those who did not.²⁷The Trevor Project, “2023 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth and Mental Health,” May 2023, https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023. This demonstrates that ensuring LGBTQ+ youth are surrounded by supportive and affirming environments can be an important component of suicide prevention.

Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence is also a major concern for the LGBTQ+ community, with particular vulnerability among transgender communities and youth. More than half of transgender people responding to the 2015 US Transgender Survey experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and for nearly half of all survey respondents, this violence came in the form of coercive control.²⁸James et al., “2015 US Transgender Survey.” According to the CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 44 percent of lesbians and 61 percent of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35 percent of straight women. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “NISVS: An Overview of 2010 Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation,” 2011, https://bit.ly/3xoayyT. Other research shows that compared to straight people, bisexual people are eight times as likely to experience domestic violence and lesbian or gay people are more than twice as likely to experience domestic violence.²⁹Jennifer L. Truman and Rachel E. Morgan, “Violent Victimization by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2017–2020,” Bureau of Justice Statistics, June 2022, https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/vvsogi1720.pdf. Dating violence also impacts LGBQ+ youth, who experience such physical and sexual dating violence at higher rates than their non-LGBTQ+ peers.³⁰Heather B. Clayton et al, “Dating Violence, Sexual Violence, and Bullying Victimization Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021.” MMWR Supplements 72, no. 1 (2023): 66–74, https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7201a8.

Firearm access helps fuel intimate partner violence and significantly increases the risk of lethal violence.

Overall Teen Dating Violence

Heather B. Clayton et al, “Dating Violence, Sexual Violence, and Bullying Victimization Among High School Students — Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2021.” MMWR Supplements 72 (2023). https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7201a8.

The Path to Saving Lives

No single solution can stop gun violence in the United States. Only through a comprehensive approach can we effectively reduce and prevent all forms of gun violence. As a first step toward comprehensive change, our nation must adopt commonsense gun violence prevention measures, including:

• The Disarm Hate Act (H.R. 3929 / S. 2090), which would close a dangerous loophole in federal law by prohibiting people convicted of violent hate crimes from accessing or acquiring guns. Under current federal law, a violent or threatening hate crime misdemeanor conviction does not prohibit someone from buying or possessing a gun. While some states have laws closing this gap, most do not. As a result, in much of the country, someone convicted of a violent hate crime can still legally pass a background check and purchase a firearm, including military-style weapons.

• Extreme Risk laws, which would disrupt dangerous individuals’ access to guns, need to be enacted, available, and implemented across all 50 states. Extreme Risk laws empower law enforcement, among others, to petition a civil court for an order to temporarily remove firearms from and block the future purchase of firearms by a person deemed a danger to themselves or others. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act³¹Everytown for Gun Safety, “What is the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act?” June 21, 2022, https://www.everytown.org/what-is-the-bipartisan-safer-communities-act/. that provides $750 million in much-needed funding over the next five years to support crisis intervention services, including the implementation of state Extreme Risk laws. In addition, the House of Representatives passed³²Everytown for Gun Safety, “Everytown Applauds Bipartisan House Passage of Rep. McBath’s Extreme Risk Protection Order Bill,” press release, June 9, 2022, https://www.everytown.org/press/everytown-applauds-bipartisan-house-passage-of-rep-mcbaths-extreme-risk-protection-order-bill/. a strong federal Extreme Risk law that would encourage more states to pass strong Extreme Risk laws, and establish a strong process that federal courts in all 50 states could use. The 19 states, and the District of Columbia, that have already passed Extreme Risk laws need to increase uptake and strengthen implementation of their Extreme Risk laws, including by utilizing newly available federal funds.³³Everytown for Gun Safety, “After a Landmark Federal Law, What’s Next for Gun Safety in the States,” July 13, 2022, https://www.everytown.org/report/after-a-landmark-federal-law-whats-next-for-gun-safety-in-the-states/. 

• Create federal offices of Domestic Terrorism within the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to formally establish a coordinated response to the threat of white supremacists and domestic violent extremist groups that target marginalized communities. The new offices of Domestic Terrorism would also submit joint annual reports to Congress, including, among other things, a quantitative analysis of domestic terrorism assessments, investigations, arrests, indictments, and prosecutions, which must both include the review of federal hate crime charges to determine whether they also constitute domestic terrorism–related incidents and be accompanied by a certification that each assessment described is in compliance with all applicable civil rights and civil liberties laws and regulations.

In 2021, President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law, which included provisions of the Jabara Heyer NO Hate Act that improve hate crime reporting and expand assistance and resources for victims of hate crimes. Still, state and federal officials have largely failed the LGBTQ+ community when it comes to ensuring equal treatment in government data collection efforts. While some federal and state demographic data collection efforts include metrics on sexual orientation and gender identity, most fail to obtain this data. Sexual orientation and gender identity questions are also omitted from the country’s largest demographic data collection endeavors, such as the decennial US Census.³⁴Elliott Kozuch, “HRC Report: State and Federal Officials Failing LGBTQ Community in Data Collection,” Human Rights Campaign, September 17, 2019, https://bit.ly/3anISC4. Municipalities, states, and the federal government can promulgate policies that require their respective data collection undertakings to be fully inclusive of the LGBTQ+ community, while ensuring the safety and privacy of these groups are protected.

Honoring the memories of the lives cut short at Pulse seven years ago—and the many other members of the LGBTQ+ community whose lives have been stolen or forever changed by hate and violence—means taking action to strengthen our nation’s gun laws. There’s no time to waste.

Methodology

Because it is not mandatory that law enforcement agencies report hate crimes to the FBI, this report relies on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The NCVS is an annual, nationally representative survey that interviews households on their experiences with criminal victimization. While the NCVS is not able to survey victims of fatal crimes, it captures detailed information about each victimization reported, including demographic information from respondents, the characteristics of the crime committed, and whether a crime was reported to the police—allowing for an understanding of hate crime victimization that may not be captured by victims who are not comfortable engaging with the criminal justice system.

Another important analysis in this report obtained estimates for LGBTQ+ youth experiences of weapon-based violence, suicide, and intimate partner violence, HRC utilized the public-use microdata available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS). Because not every state asks sexual orientation and gender identity questions and not every state makes its data publicly available on the CDC’s data and documentation domain, this analysis is generally limited to a subset of states available. Data are weighted according to the specifications set forth by the CDC. For variance estimation within strata that contain a single unit, the strata are centered at the population mean instead of the stratum mean.

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund’s analysis of homicides of transgender and gender-expansive people in the United States comes from its Transgender Homicide Tracker, 2017–2022, which tracks all homicides from media and local reports, including those perpetrated by law enforcement. Given the likely underreporting of these homicides by the media, and the prevalent misgendering by law enforcement, these numbers likely represent a tragic undercount.³⁵Lucas Waldron and Ken Schwencke, “Deadnamed,” ProPublica, August 10, 2018, https://bit.ly/3NdUVAJ.

Explore the data here, and download an Excel file here.