Nov 23, 2009, 15:58 GMT
Washington - The number of hate crimes in the United States climbed slightly in 2008, while anti-gay or religion-motivated attacks surged markedly, according to new government data Monday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tallied 7,783 crimes in 2008 - up 2 per cent from the previous year - that were motivated by a bias against race, colour, gender, religion, sexual orientation, national origin or disability.
Congress just last month added anti-gay and anti-gender related crimes to the list of what constitutes a 'hate crime' - a major victory for the gay community in the United States.
A total of 1,617 offences based on sexual orientation were reported in 2008, up 10.7 per cent from the previous year. Religion- motivated attacks were up 8.7 per cent.
More than half of the hate crimes reported were race-related - about two-thirds against Jews.
The FBI said the numbers could be based on higher incident reporting. A total of 2,145 agencies across the country reported hate crimes in 2008, compared to 2,025 agencies the year before.
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