Hate Crimes

Many things have changed over the past year, some for the good, while others are still changing for the worse. We live in an age where people are starting to be more accepting, and great “change” is happening, but if things are all supposed to change for the better, then why are the hate crimes against gays and religious groups steadily increasing?
Hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased 11% and hate crimes based on religion have increased 9%. Just recently, Congress added anti-gay and anti-gender related offenses to the list of hate crimes, which is a major victory for the United States gay community.
More than half of all hate crimes are religious based and over 2/3 of those malicious crimes are directed towards Jews.
Among all categories of hate crimes, about one third are vandalism or property damage, while 30 percent involve intimidation of any kind, and another 30 percent were physical attacks.
Our society has become extremely racist towards Muslims since 9/11, and now that the United States has an African American as president, racial oriented groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens have seen a dramatic increase of interests from possible new members.
Why is this world so focused on shunning those away that are different? Why must people act upon impulse and hate others that don’t believe in the same things they do. Why should gays have any less rights than straight people? Are they really that different than us? People should get to know the person before committing malicious and demeaning hate crimes against them, chances are they have never done anything to personally hurt you, so why hurt them?