UK Records Surge in Transphobic & Homophobic Hate Crimes
Transphobic hate crimes in the UK has quadrupled in the UK, and homophobic crimes in UK has tripled, according to figures obtained by Vice Media World news.
The new figures, received through responses to freedom of information requests from police forces across the UK, reveals that there were 2,588 hate crimes in 2020-21, compared to 598 in 2014-15. And hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose to 19,679 in 1920-21, compared to 6,363 reported in 2014-15; the same year that same-sex weddings became legal.
Compared to last year’s figures, there has been a 12% rise in reports to police of hate crimes based on sexual orientation, and a 2% increase in reports based on transgender identity in the UK, confirmed Vice Media. The highest number of reports of transphobic hate crimes came from London (287), followed by West Yorkshire (201), Manchester (169), West Midlands (126) and Scotland (111).
Leni Morris, CEO of the UK’s LGBTQ anti-abuse charity Galop, said she “wasn’t surprised that hate crimes went up during lockdown period”. She also added that these figures “only represent a tiny part of the overall amount of abuse and violence faced by the LGBT+ community in the UK today, as 90% of hate rimes against LGBT+ people go unreported.
Stonewall’s Associate Director of Campaigns and Communications Sacha Misra said “the deeply concerning statistics must be a wake up call that we need to do more to tackle rising hate crime against lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people”.
“It’s worrying to see such a stark increase in reports of hate crimes, especially during a pandemic, which caused so many of us to live through multiple lockdowns. This can’t continue,” continued Misra. “As a society, we need to do more to combat anti-LGBTQ+ violence and sentiment.”
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