Idaho police say alleged antigay beating can’t be charged as a hate crime

Read more at the Advocate.

An Idaho man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a gay couple outside a restaurant. But despite allegations that Pedro Villareal hurled antigay slurs before beating two men, authorities charged him only with a misdemeanor and said the state’s hate crime law doesn’t apply.

Caldwell Police say Villareal and other men started shouting slurs at Eric Reed and Juan Olvera outside Acapulco, a restaurant in town, and then chased them from a plaza to nearby railroad tracks, according to Boise TV station KTVB. There, the victims told police, Villareal allegedly began assaulting them. The attack left Reed’s lip split and required six stitches.

Reed and Olvera later sat down with the TV station, where Reed described the fear he experienced during the attack. “I literally felt they were going to kill us for being gay,” Olvera said. “It’s a scary thing to live through, and I never would wish this on anyone.”

But police said Villareal won’t face hate crime charges, even though law enforcement officials said they would like to pursue them. That’s because Idaho state law doesn’t cover crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity as acts of hate.

“We’re here to serve the citizens of Caldwell and Idaho, and unfortunately, when we’re unable to give them the justice that they feel that they need, under the application of the law, it is frustrating,” Lt. Jeffrey Peterson, a spokesperson for Caldwell Police, told the news outlet.

That’s not the first time the limitation in Idaho’s state law has prevented prosecutors from pursuing hate crime allegations.

Matthew Alan Lehigh was arrested by Boise Police in 2023 and charged with aggravated assault, malicious injury to property, and arson after a string of crimes that included allegedly trying to drive a car into a gay couple after vandalizing an LGBTQ+ center and a Pride flag at the couple’s home. It wasn’t until federal prosecutors stepped in, however, that Lehigh faced any hate crime charges despite clear evidence of anti-LGBTQ+ motivation.

But despite individuals being victimized based on gender identity and sexual orientation, Idaho’s hate crime statute covers only harassment and targeting of victims based on “race, color, religion, ancestry, or national origin.”

Civil rights groups, including the ACLU of Idaho, have campaigned for years to “add the words” and update the state’s hate crime and non-discrimination laws.

June 16, 2026 0

Study finds that Nevada is the safest state for LGBTQ residents

Hate incidents against LGBTQ+ community on the rise in Texas, across the U.S.: Report

Read more at CBS News.

Hate incidents against the LGBTQ+ community are increasing across the country, including in Texas.

That’s according to a new report by GLAAD, one of the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations in the country.

Data from GLAAD’s 2025 Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker desk shows that in Texas alone, there were over 60 incidents against members of the community. Those incidents include violent assaults, vandalism, and threats of mass shootings.

“We unfortunately found that there were more than 1,000 of these incidents, and in Texas specifically, we found that Texas was ranked third highest in the U.S.,” said GLAAD’s Sarah Moore. “It’s a snapshot of what LGBTQ people are going through, and not a total, you know, all-encompassing number. We know so many of these stories are not going reported, and if they are being reported, they might be uninvestigated, or they might be dismissed by local police departments.”

The report comes as Texas lawmakers advance policies that advocates said directly impact the LGBTQ+ community, like the so-called “bathroom bill,” which requires people in government buildings and schools to use certain facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth, as well as the removal of rainbow and decorative crosswalks.

“This isn’t just, you know, something that people are putting into comment sections on Facebook. It’s not just something that we’re using to win political campaigns, but this type of rhetoric is having a very real impact on the lived experience of LGBTQ folks,” Moore said.

In Arlington, organizers of Arlington Pride cancelled this year’s celebration after the city council’s vote to revise the ordinance over concerns it could jeopardize federal funding. Critics said the new version strips away protections for the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized groups.

“There’s a very strategic political agenda out there to make people feel other,” said Deejay Johannessen, the CEO at the Help Center for LGBTQ+ Health. “It’s showing that they’re less than and people then act upon that because they’re taking the lead from the political leaders.”

Johannessen said while members of the LGBTQ+ community have long faced challenges, the current climate is especially difficult.

“We can have our differences, but everybody has the right to live their lives. and feel safe in their own community,” Johannessen said.

February 20, 2026 0

Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes have risen around the world since 2020: report

Read more at The Advocate.

Hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people are rising around the world as politicians target them through legislation and rhetoric.

Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes have increased in the past five years across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, according to a new report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, with transgender and gender nonconforming people particularly affected. The spike may in part be attributed to world governments passing anti-LGBTQ+ policies, which has “escalated internationally in tandem with political rhetoric.”

Some of the high profile incidents cited in the report include the mass shooting at the LGBTQ+ bar Club Q in Colorado that left five dead, the 2023 murder of a woman in California who was not LGBTQ+ because she flew a rainbow flag in her store, and the arrests of 20 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front in 2023 who intended to riot at a Pride event in Idaho.

“These threats come from across the spectrum of ideological extremism, but frequently from groups that also pose a threat to the state and are openly opposed to democratic norms,” the report notes.

In the U.S., hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people remained high despite an overall decrease in violent crime. Out of 11,323 single-bias incidents the FBI reported in 2024, 2,278 (17.2 percent) were based on sexual orientation and 527 (4.1 percent) were based on gender identity. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation were the third-largest category, with crimes based on race, ethnicity, or ancestry being first and religiously motivated crimes second. Gender identity bias was the fourth-largest category.

Threats and harassment against school board officials in the U.S. also increased by 170 percent from the previous year in November, 2024 to April, 2025, the ISD report notes. Many of these threats were explicitly motivated by an anti-LGBTQ+ bias, with the perpetrators objecting to age appropriate queer books or content in public schools.

“LGBTQ+ individuals, who gained unprecedented civil rights in previous decades, are now increasingly targeted by online and offline hate, political rhetoric, censorship and legislation,” the report states. “A series of actions have sought to exclude LGBTQ+ people and culture from public life, ranging from book bans to a spread of legislation restricting trans people. In tandem, terror attacks (or the threat of terror attacks), violent extremist activity, and hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ individuals have increased or remained consistently high since 2020.”

October 23, 2025 0