Guimel DeCarvalho

Vice President of People & Culture

This past weekend was the 5th anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub shooting where 49 LGBTQ+ people lost their lives, many of whom were Latinx. There have been many gains made in the LGBTQ+ rights movement, we must not forget that violence and death is still a very real threat to this community.

The number of anti-LGBT hate groups soared 43 percent last year, rising from 49 groups in 2018 to 70 in 2019, according to the report “The Year in Hate and Extremism” from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “LGBT people are 2.4 times more likely to suffer a violent hate crime attack than Jews (8.3 divided by 3.5). In the same way, gays are 2.6 times more likely to be attacked than blacks; 4.4 times more likely than Muslims; 13.8 times more likely than Latinos; and 41.5 times more likely than whites, according to the FBI figures. The basic pattern holds by years as well as across the years.”

Learn more about the onePULSE Foundation and why President Biden will be signing a bill to designate Pulse a national memorial here:

Southern Poverty Law Center: Anti-Gay Crimes, Doing the Math

NBCNews.com: 1 in 5 Hate Crimes Motivated Anti-LGBTQ Bias, FBI Finds

PBS.org: Biden to Name Pulse Nightclub a National Memorial

FILE PHOTO — REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo