In the early hours of Sunday, May 11, last year, five teen-age girls waited at a bus stop in Newark, New Jersey. One of the girls was 15 year-old Sakia Gunn, an African-American lesbian. Gunn and her friends were returning from a party in Greenwich Village when two men in a van approached them at a bus stop. The men proceeded to flirt with Gunn and her friends, but when the girls rebuffed the advances by explaining that they were lesbians, a shoving match took place. The shoving escalated, and Gunn was fatally stabbed by one of the attackers. The men immediately fled the scene of the crime.

Unfortunately, stories of violence within the GLBT youth community are not uncommon. According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, most hate crimes are committed by and against teens and young adults.

• Almost two-thirds of reported attacks are committed by individuals under the age of 24. Although people of all racial and ethnic groups commit hate crimes, young white males commit most of them.

• Most victims of violent hate crimes are also young: More than half of the victims of reported hate violence are age 24 or under, and nearly a third are under 18. African-Americans, Jews, Arab-Americans and Muslims, new immigrants, lesbians, gay men and women are some of the most frequently targeted groups.