Gay hate killings highest since 1999

The number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people killed in bias-motivated incidents increased by 28 percent in 2008 compared to a year ago, according to a national coalition of advocacy groups.

Last year’s 29 killings was the highest recorded by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs since 1999, when it documented the same number of slayings, according to a report released Tuesday by the coalition.

Coalition officials say their figures are more accurate than those from law enforcement agencies. As an example, the FBI doesn’t record bias crimes against transgender people because gender identity isn’t covered by federal hate-crime law.

In addition, victims sometimes are reluctant to report bias incidents to police because they don’t want to reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity and/or they fear bias from police.