Celebrating 36 Years!
Issue 48 Volume 37
FRIDAY November 27, 2009 FREE! 25¢ in bookstores & news stands
Holiday and Travel Guide Section 3
Seattle Gay News SEATTLE’S LGBT NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
Lopez Mercado funeral FBI: Hate crimes on the rise held in Puerto Rico by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer
david badash
Homemade memorial to Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado
by Mike Andrew SGN Staff Writer More than 1,000 people attended the November 23 funeral of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado, the Gay teenager brutally murdered in Cayey, Puerto Rico. “The support we have received from the public and Steven’s friends has given us the strength to bear this moment of such horrible
pain,” Lopez’s aunt Rubi Mercado told El Nuevo Dia newspaper at the funeral. “I asked Steven with his wings from heaven to help us carry on without having him by our side.” El Nuevo Dia reported that at the end of the funeral Mass, Lopez’s aunt and his ex-boyfriend, Luis Rivera, opened the urn containsee mercado page 16
Reports of hate crimes against Gays and religious groups increased sharply in 2008, according to new data released by the FBI on November 23. Overall, there were 7,783 criminal incidents reported last year. Those incidents involved 9,168 offenses. In 2007, there were 7,624 criminal incidents involving 9,006 offenses reported. The data finds the number of reported hate crimes increased about 2%. These same figures show a nearly 11% increase in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, and a nearly 9% increase in hate crimes based on religion. The largest category, racially motivated hate crimes, fell less than 1%. Among all categories of hate crimes, roughly a third are vandalism or property damage. About 30% involve intimidation of some kind, and another 30% were physical attacks against people. Of the criminal incidents, all but three were motivated by a single bias: 51.3% by race, 19.5% by religion, 16.7% by sexual orientation, 11.5% by ethnicity or national origin, 1% by disability. Within the racial bias incidents, 72.6% were against blacks, while 17.3% against whites. Gay men were the victims in
World AIDS Day Luncheon honors Dr. Bob Wood
by Shaun Knittel SGN Staff Writer
worship accounted for 6.1%. The FBI does not compare yearto-year trends in hate crimes, because the number of agencies reporting the crimes changes too much. The FBI cautioned that the increase reported on November 23 might well be due to more agencies tracking such incidents. see hate crimes page 16
Candlelight vigils mark Transgender Day of Remembrance
SGN. “I was one of the earliest vice Award honoree. doctors to get involved durDr. Wood is no stranger to ing the initial AIDS crisis the HIV/AIDS battle. Wood and have been working holds a fellowship from on helping patients ever the American College since.” of Physicians who For the physician, helped establish a this was a personal King County group fight. Not only had of about 100 LGBT Woods lost a lover physicians in the to the epidemic, he late 1970s that got discovered he was intimately involved HIV-positive in 1985. in AIDS care, and That is when he dewas one of the leadcided to take the job ing AIDS physicians as director of the beginning in 1982 – HIV/AIDS Coneventually becomtrol Program to ing the director “make a contriof the HIV/ bution to the AIDS Concommunity.” trol Program “If you for Public have a disHealth, ease like SeattleHIV and K i n g Protesters mark the Trangender Day of Remembrance you think County the international day of observance you are go- by James Whitely Health Dethat is in its 11th year. ing to die, SGN Contributing Writer partment I The Q Center at the University of you don’t have 1986, a position November 20 marked the Trans- Washington, along with volunteers much to lose,” he’s held for 23 Woods explained, “so you chal- gender Day of Remembrance. All from the student group UW Stuyears. around Seattle, local organizations “I am deeply honored to be getting this award,” Dr. Wood told see BOB WOOD page 15 put on various events to recognize see transgender page 14 james whitely
World AIDS Day Luncheon December 1 Washington State Convention Center World AIDS Day, an annual event held on December 1 that raises awareness about the global issue of HIV and AIDS, is right around the corner. Also known as World AIDS Awareness Day, the 2009 theme for this year’s event is Universal Access and Human Rights. Besides raising awareness, memorials, educational and informative events are held all around the world. In Seattle, Multifaith Works, Dunshee House, Gay City, and Seattle Counseling Service for Sexual Minorities are teaming up to hold a luncheon at the Washington State Convention Center on December 1, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (www.strongertogetherlunch. com.) This year, Dr. Bob Wood, HIV/AIDS director for SeattleKing County Health Department has been named as the AIDS Ser-
most of the sexual orientation-bias attacks with 58.6%. Anti-Jewish bias accounted for 65.7% of the religious bias attacks, while 7.7% of the attacks were against Muslims. Hate crimes most frequently occurred in or near homes (31.9%). Highways, roads, alleys or streets accounted for 17.4%, schools accounted for 11.7%, parking lots accounted for 6.1%, and places of
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