After New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly declared that Elliot Morales, 33, allegedly shot Mark Carson, 32, in an apparent hate crime killing, the murder was considered the 22nd hate crime against homosexuals in the Big Apple this year.
Greenwich Village has long embraced its characteristics as home to numerous artistic figures and much of the city's gay population. When people think of The Village, the ideas of social freedom and tolerance toward all beliefs and backgrounds often come to mind.
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However, Kelly said that the city as a whole has reached almost twice the number of anti-gay hate crimes that were tabulated by this time in 2012. Reuters suggested that the recent spike in hate crimes against homosexuals could be blow-back over recent nationwide and worldwide milestones for the gay community. Argentina and a number of other countries have recently legalized gay marriage, and here in the United States, Maryland and others have successfully sought approval of gay marriage in their respective legislatures.
The uptick in this type of hate crime could be "a backlash against the recent advance of gay marriage laws across the United States," Reuters reported. However, a majority of those opposed to gay marriage would likely not condone violence as a solution. In a similar incident involving a vigilante killing over one's personal beliefs, a man named Scott Roeder was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole for 50 years after he killed abortion doctor George Tiller of Kansas in 2009.
In response to Roeder's killing of Tiller, the Family Research Council, a conservative group that opposes abortion, said through President Tony Perkins that they "strongly condemn the actions taken today by this vigilante killer, and we pray for the Tiller family," asserting that violence in this way solves nothing.
In response to the death of Carson, GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, said through a spokesman that the killing of Carson was a "reminder of the rife homophobia that still exists in our culture," saying that he was "confident that our community and our city will not be silenced but will rather come together to stop this rash of senseless violence."
GLAAD plans to hold a march to "demand an end to hate crimes against the LGBT community" on Monday evening in Greenwich Village, the neighborhood where Carson was killed.
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