Reported hate crimes directed toward gays, lesbians and bisexuals fell slightly last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's data on hate crimes published Monday.
According to the report, in 2003 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation made up 16.4 percent of the nation's hate crimes. The year before, 16.7 percent of the nation's hate crimes targeted people based on their perceived orientation, which was the highest percentage since the report started publishing 13 years ago.
The report claimed there were 1,239 incidents of hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation with 1,479 victims. The year before the FBI reported 1,244 incidents of similar hate crimes with 1,513 victims.
Of the 1,479 victims, 61.5 percent were targeted because they were male homosexuals. Anti-lesbian attacks accounted for 15.6 percent of the attacks. Attacks made on homosexuals at large accounted for 21.2 percent of the attacks. Anti-bisexual violence accounted for 0.07 percent, while attacks against heterosexuals made up 1 percent of the recorded data.
According to the report, hatred based on sexual orientation in 2003 motivated six murders, three rapes, 162 incidents of aggravated assault, 446 incidents of simple assault, 433 incidents of intimidation and 295 acts of vandalism.
California recorded the most violent incidents, 337, against people based on their perceived sexuality. New York came in second, with 71 attacks. And Massachusetts came in at third place with 69 incidents.
According to the FBI, most of the attacks against people based on their perceived sexuality, 30.3 percent, occurred at home. Highways and roads came in at second, making up 25 percent of the attacks. Schools and colleges placed third, with 11.9 percent of the attacks.
The report, made possible by the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, analyzes data from 11,909 law enforcement agencies.
According to the report, crimes motivated by a person's perceived sexuality made up 16.4 percent of the nation's over 7,400 hate crimes recorded. Hate crimes motivated by someone's religion shared the same percentage. Most of the nation's hate crimes, 52.5 percent, were motivated by race. -- Michael Pugliese