24 — OUT IN THE MouNTAlNs — SEPTEMBER 1998 0 The VT Department of Health is seeking volunteers to represent the GLBT community on the Commissioner of Health's GLBT Advisory Committee. Current available openings include positions for 2 gay men, I female to male transgender, 2 bisexual men, and I bisexual woman. Those interested in applying, please send a copy of your résumé, with contact phoneladdress to: Lauren Corbett, MSW Office of Minority Health, Department of Health PO Box 70, Burlington, VT 05402 ~ 802-863-7273 WOMl3N’<% ‘CHOICE GYNECOLOGIC ASSOCIATES ‘ 23 Mansfield Avenue Burlington, Vermont 05401 802-863-9001 Fax: 802-862-9637 Cheryl A. Gibson M.D. Susan F. Smith M.D. PRIMARY CARE IN FRANKLIN COUNTY‘ Mara Vijups, M.D. Family Practice Specialist - NMC Rural Health Services Caring for Adults 8: Children Enosburg Swanton East Fairfield 933-5831 868-2454 827-3032 Susan McKenzie MS. Licensed Psychologist.-Master Experienced rherapist specializing in the individual and relationship issues of Lesbian Women and Gay Men 9 Quechee 8 0 2 2 9 S - 5 5 3 3 lnstirar-‘nee Ace-e-;>ted—Slii1in-g, -Fee Stair: -mi‘/«.7/1;//1;; /ll r.7z?'nl’u-tr/If mm’ ;mi'n.7ll‘u‘ 2/mi/u7l ('./Flt’ I RICK RECCHIO, M.D.. F.A.A.P. POB 806. 184 Rt. 7 South Milton,’VT 05468 (888) 527-8189 rrecchio@together.net M.D. HEALTHWORKER A licensed advertiser for O1 TM V Serving 8 Supporting the GLBT Community (802) 865-9294 join us in pride. for 13 years. ellbeing llnti-Gay and lesbian An HATE CRIMES: Interview with Jeanine Cogan by Esther Bothblum There has been a lot of re- cent media focus on crimes that take place based on victims’ mem- bership in oppressed groups. To find out more about anti—lesbian and gay hate crimes, I phoned Dr. Jeanine Cogan, a psychologist who has conducted research and influenced federal policy on this issue. "Hate crimes are defined legally by specific legislation," said Jeanine Cogan, ”however the commonality across the different pieces of legislation is that hate crimes are crimes that are based on real or perceived group mem- bership. Usually that includes race, ethnicity, national origin, and religion. Sometimes it also in- cludes sexual orientation, disabil- ity and gender. That means you were specifically chosen, some- times out of a crowd, because you belonged to or where thought to belong to, one of the above groups.” Along with Drs. Gregory Herek, Roy Gillis and Eric Glunt at the University of California at Davis, Jeanine worked on a long- term grant funded by the National Institute ofMental Health (in fact, the first grant ever funded by that organization about gay and les- bian issues that did not focus on AIDS). The purpose of the re- search study was to look at the psychological consequences of having survived an anti—gay or anti-lesbian hate crime. The re- search team also predicted that experiencing a hate crime would have more serious consequences than experiencing a crime that was not based on the group member- ship of the victim. They surveyed more than 2,500 people in the greater Sacra- mento, California area, including people who lived up to 100 miles away in rural areas. ”When we were recruiting participants we never said ‘please take part in a study of hate crimes,’ because we didn't want to bias the kind of per- son who would participate in the study,” said Jeanine. Instead, they referred to the study as one exam- ining a range of experiences im- portant to lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals with a focus on health and well-being. All members of the research team were familiar members of the gay and lesbian communities that they studied. The research team found that one in four gay and bisexual men and one in five lesbians and bisexual women had experienced a hate-motivated crime since the age of 16. Jeanine said: ”We found that individuals who experienced a hate crime against their person—— a physical or sexual assault, an at- tempted assault, a robbery—had more psychological distress after such a hate crime than people who experienced a crime of similar se- verity that was not aimed at them because of their sexual orientation. We also found a time factor. We know that people who experience a crime tend to be psychologically’ distressed. And, over time, people recover. In our study, we found that those who had experienced a crime that was not a hate crime tended to feel better after two years. But people who experi- enced a hate crime took much longer—five years on average—— for their symptoms to dissipate. So if you're around someone who ex- perienced a hate crime years ago, you may still see some symptoms of distress.” These symptoms of distress could include depression, post—traumatic stress, anxiety and anger. Then the research team in- terviewed 450 of the 2,500 respon- dents. They compared those who had experienced a hate crime, those who had experienced a crime unrelated to their sexual ori- entation, and those who had ex- perienced no crime. "We got a lot of infomiation about hate crimes,” Jeanine said, ”and those people who had experienced a hate crime often defined it as such based on tangible evidence. For example, the language that was used-—-be- ing called a dyke while being as- saulted. Or, the vandalism indi- cated a hate-motivated crime, such as having the word ‘lesbian’ smeared on their door with paint. Or theirs was the only car with a rainbow flag, and the only car damaged in a parking lot.” Jeanine found that listening to the respondents’ stories was quite frightening to her. She coun- seled the other interviewers about this fear, a phenomenon that has been termed ”indirect trauma" (for example, lesbians feeling vic- timized just by hearing of hate crimes happening to other lesbi- ans). She also found a difference in the way lesbians and gay men were victimized. ”Some lesbians were physically assaulted by a former male partner, such as a former husband, when the lesbi- ans came out to these men,” Jeanine recalled, "We ended up calling it ‘heterosexual revenge.’ Some gay men, on the other hand, were lured to have sex by other, presumed ‘straight’ men and then assaulted by these men. ”And this was a pattern we found only among men.” Jeanine is now working at the American Psychological Asso- ciation in Washington, DC, where she is involved in changing hate crime policy at the national level. "l’ve been working with Sharon Shaw Johnson, who is the direc- DYKE PSYCHE tor of GLOVE—Gay Men and Les- bians Opposing Violence——and they collect hate crimes data and do interventions. Both of us have noticed that it is the butch woman and the ‘effeminate’ man who are at particular risk for hate crimes because they defy our ideas of ' gender.” Jeanine’s policy work fo- cuses on broadening the definition of hate crimes. As part of a hate crimes coalition, she is attempting to amend a current civil rights stat- ute that can be used against a per- petrator who bashes a person based on that person's group membership. She is trying to in- clude sexual orientation, disabil- ity and gender in the definition of hate crimes. "The real hot potato is gender," she says. "The FBI is concerned that if every rape against a woman is a hate crime, they don't have the personnel to cope with the huge numbers." With a broad-based hate crimes coalition, Jeanine had many con- versations with the Department of Justice about the inclusion of gen- der as a hate crime. In the end they supported adding gender, and President Clinton has endorsed the Hate Crime Prevention Act and has put funds into the budget for more FBI agents to work on hate crimes. Jeanine is also thrilled to have been successful in combining research with policy. The Bureau of Justice Statistics conducts an annual survey on criminal victim- ization. They sample 50,000 households in the US about crime experiences in the past year. Along with many other advocates, Jeanine was successful in getting ‘ this survey to include questions about hate crimes. This will allow for national statistics about hate crimes over the next years. Docu- menting the prevalence of an is- sue is an essential step for receiv- ing an appropriate government re- sponse. So this will be an impor- tant contribution. For more information, see Gregory, Herek, Roy Gillis, Jeanine Cogan, and Eric Glunt (1997). Hate crime victimization among lesbians, gay and bisexual adults: Prevalence, psychological correlates and methodological issues. JOURNAL OF INTERPERSONAL VIO- LENCE, volume 12, pp. 195-215. Esther Rothblum is Professor of Psy- chology at the University of Vermont and Editor of the Journal of Lesbian Studies. She can be reached at Iolm Dewey Hall, University of Vermfllltr Burlington, VT 05405 mid estheLmt}ib11im@rmm.edu. DYKE PSYCHE is a monthly column.