Lottie Murray
TW: This article mentions incidents of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia
Despite the success of Pride celebrations flooding media outlets, there has been a daunting rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes being reported to police in the UK. Figures have shown that hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identification are a major area of concern for police across the UK.
British law recognises a hate crime as any crime which has “demonstrated hostility based on race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity”.
When it comes to homophobic hate crimes, reports have almost doubled in the past five years of recorded data. In 2021, the government released an official document, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, detailing that the police had received 17,135 reports of hate crimes targeting individuals of a minority sexuality. This figure shows an increase of over 10,000 cases since 2016/17, demonstrating the severity of this growth in reports.
Transgender individuals in the UK are having to fight incredibly hard for their rights—there were 2,630 reports of transphobic abuse. However, 88 per cent of transgender people did not report an incident of transphobic abuse to the police, despite being twice as likely to experience threats compared to others in the LGBTQ+ community.
5. Anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime to be urgently addressed
Figures show anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the UK increased by 32 percent over the past year, while transphobic hate crimes were up 240 per cent, yet the government has so far shown little interest in doing anything about it.
10/16— PinkNews (@PinkNews) September 7, 2022
Calls have been made for all 43 police forces in both England and Wales to do more to tackle homophobia and transphobia. However, various regions across the nation report some particularly outstanding statistics regarding this matter.
Greater Manchester Police are receiving intense scrutiny, following an extremely disturbing event in Greater Manchester in April 2022, where a 22-year-old man was brutally attacked at the hands of a homophobic attacker.
Greater Manchester has recorded 320 reports of transphobia, ranking only slightly behind London, where this figure stands at 434. Home Office data shows that the Greater Manchester Police received a record-breaking 1,461 reports of homophobia and biphobia last year, Bury Times reports.
"This isn't just data. These reports represent members of our community who are physically attacked, or blackmailed, or harassed".
UK police have reported their biggest ever rise in reports of anti-LGBTQ hate crimes.#LGBTQ https://t.co/mTLD0nrryO
— Christina Warner (@ChrisJ_Warner) August 16, 2022
The London Metropolitan Police saw a dip in reports last year. However, this did not last long—there has been a 28 per cent increase in homophobic hate crimes in 2022. Reports have reached heights of 3,794, according to Vice World News reports.
The nature of the hate crime reporting process has faced prevalent scrutiny. While it is evident that there has been a huge surge in cases of anti-LGBTQ+ violence, statistics show that many victims are not seeking help from police following hate crimes. Galop has stated that only 1 in 8 LGBTQ+ people actually reported their experiences to the police.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community have expressed major reluctance when it comes to presenting a case to the police, after being targeted based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Parliamentary research has disclosed that the most common reason for the violence going unreported was that the victim believed that “it was not worth it” or “nothing would happen or change”.
Members of the community have called for police to do more to offer genuine support for victims of homophobic and transphobic attacks so that more people are encouraged to report their experiences. Many are concerned that if the reporting system does not improve, cases of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes will spiral out of control.
If you or someone close to you have been the victim of a homophobic or transphobic attack (either verbally or physically the following services are available for support.
Contact the Police:
For Urgent Incidents: 999
For reporting a hate crime: 101 or use the online portal
LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline: 020 7704 2040.
Galop: The LGBT+ Anti-Abuse Charity can also offer support: help@galop.org.uk or on their website
Featured image courtesy of Mercedes Mehling via Unsplash. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.
