The Triangle Foundation reports that it received 116 cases of anti-gay violence last year, compared with 90 cases a year earlier.
"We think it means that more people are reporting incidents because they know we are here and are ready to assist them," said Jeffrey Montgomery, Triangle's president.
He also added, "Even with increased reporting, the numbers represented in this report do not provide anything close to the reality."
The numbers - collected by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a group of about two dozen gay organizations - are up about 6 percent nationwide, he said.
The Triangle report shows that in Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties - with several reports from other out-state locations included - that white men were victimized more than any other group. They made up about 96 of the reported cases.
"The numbers and statistics in this report represent real people whose lives, and the lives of those who love them, have been unalterably changed and profoundly affected being victims of violent crime," Montgomery said.
"These are individuals who have been victims of a particularly heinous type of crime, made more atrocious because they were targets based on something over which there was no control," he said.
While gays and lesbians report that they don't trust police to take gay-bashing seriously, gay-related police reports have also increased, the Triangle Foundation reported.
"There were no gays calling police 20 years ago," Plymouth Township Police Chief Carl Berry said. "I've had several people call in the last year alone."
But Montgomery called on all gays who are verbally or physically attacked to step forward.
"We must stop the silence - the silence that reinforces the closet as tomb and prison in which thousands, perhaps millions, of gay people must live," he said.