Since the presidential election, the New York City Anti-Violence Project has seen a 45% increase in calls to its violence hotline. "We're not sending clear messages that LGBTQ lives are valued," Chestnut said. According to the Camden County Sheriff’s office, witnesses told police Endsley had an issue with Smith’s sexual orientation. Their next-door neighbor, Steven Ray Endsley, was charged in their deaths. Their bodies were found in their burnt-down home. Danielle Smith, a white bisexual cisgender woman, and her mother, Teresa Jackson, were murdered in August 2016 in Camdenton, Mo.James Allen Byrd was charged with her homicide but was found incompetent to stand trial. According to Thomas’ mother, Byrd was transphobic. In August 2016, Rae’Lynn Thomas, a black transgender woman, was shot to death by her mother’s ex-boyfriend in Columbus, Ohio.A federal hate crime charge was brought against Schneider, who is now serving a sentence of 28 years to life. Schneider lured Nelson to an isolated area, then beat him with steel-toed boots while using anti-gay slurs. In April 2016, Steven Nelson, a white cisgender gay male, died in a hospital after being brutally beaten by Kelly Schneider, a man he had arranged an online encounter with on the website.Here are just some of the crimes committed against LGBTQ people in 2016:
It was never a guarantee their lives were safe. But advocates say the Supreme Court's ruling in 2015 - which made same-sex marriage a legal right - was never a measure of societal or cultural acceptance of the LGBTQ community. In the U.S., gay marriage had been set as a benchmark for equality. Opinion: Christian clergyman on Pulse, 1 year later: We must protect the vulnerable "I think with increased visibility comes increased vulnerability," said Shelby Chestnut, director of community organizing and public advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. Outside of the lives lost at Pulse nightclub, the NCAVP found a 17% increase in hate killings from the previous year. The group collected data on 1,036 incidents of hate violence from 12 local NCAVP member organizations in 11 states for its 20th annual report, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Hate Violence in 2016." Yet even without those 49 victims, 2016 was the deadliest year on record for the LGBTQ community, according to a report released Monday by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). The gruesome attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando a year ago was the worst mass shooting in U.S.
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