"12 Crimes That Changed the LGBT World"

The Advocate has covered the LGBT community for 45 years, and these crimes won’t soon be forgotten.

Last March, when gay 24-year-old Daniel Zamudio was beaten so severely, after having swastikas carved into his skin, that he died in the hospital three weeks later, the brutal murder shocked Chileans and spurred the government there to fast-track LGBT antidiscrimination legislation. A lawyer for Zamudio’s family, Jaime Silva, told The Christian Science Monitor that the crime was “the most brutal attack we’ve seen since the days of the dictatorship.” As soon as news hit U.S. shores, Zamudio was being called South America’s Matthew Shepard, and his murder a stark reminder of the crimes that have shaken LGBT folks, especially in the U.S., over the last 50 years.