Ahead of Lesbian Visibility Week, we take a look at the unsettling current statistics surrounding hate crimes
BY NANCY KELLEY, IMAGE BY PEXELS
CW: Hate crime, violence, sexual violence
Trends in anti-LGBTQIA hate crime
Over the last decade, hate crimes have been trending sharply upwards – in fact, 2023 saw the headline rate of hate crimes reduce for the first time in a decade.
Anti-LGBTQIA hate crimes haven’t just tracked this trend – hate crimes targeting our community have risen even more rapidly.
What does this look like in practice? Well in 2012 /13 the police recorded just over four thousand hate crimes targeting people because of their sexual orientation. Last year they recorded just over twenty-four thousand: an increase of 465% over just a decade. And although there has been a small year-on-year reduction in hate crimes based on sexual orientation, the overall trend remains very negative.
Police recorded hate crime figures don’t include the gender of the victim, so we can’t quantify the direct impact on LGBQ+ women. Some studies from the US suggest that LGBQ+ women may be at a slightly elevated risk of hate crime on the basis of sexual orientation, but we don’t have comparable UK data to draw on.
When it comes to anti-trans hate crime, the picture is even worse. In 2012/13, there were just 361 anti-trans hate crimes recorded by the police. Last year there were 4,732: a rise of 1,211% over ten years. And unlike other forms of hate crime, anti-trans hate crime rose again in 2023, with an 11% year-on-year increase.
The Home Office statistical bulletin had this to say about it: “Transgender issues have been heavily discussed by politicians, the media and on social media over the last year, which may have led to an increase in these offences”
Police-recorded hate crime is the tip of the iceberg.
Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that on average only 50% of hate crimes get reported to the police. Research from community organisations like Gallop suggests that underreporting in the LGBTQIA community may be far higher: Galop’s 2021 Hate Crime Report found only one in eight people had reported the most recent hate crime they experienced.
Police recorded hate crimes aren’t about “wokery”.
Anti-LGBTQIA hate crimes are about violence, stalking and harassment, and criminal damage. Sometimes hate crimes kill.
Every single one of these hate crimes, whether they are reported or not, causes devastation and heartbreak for survivors and the people who care about them.
This picture is already a bleak one, but it is incomplete.
The UK legal system does not recognise, record or charge hate crimes that are driven by misogyny. So when we look at hate crime data it shows an incomplete picture.
Gender-based violence is at epidemic levels here in the UK, whether that is sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking and harassment. These crimes may not be recognised, recorded or charged as hate crimes, but many are absolutely driven by identity-based hate.
And LGBTQIA women and non-binary people aren’t at less risk of gender-based violence. We are more at risk of it because we live at the intersection of misogyny and homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.
One clear example of this is to be found in the Crime Survey for England and Wales data on sexual assault: 1.7% of straight people experienced some form of sexual violence in 2022, compared to 12.8% of lesbian and gay people, and 16.4% of bi people. And though the base is too small to break this data down by gender for all parts of our community, we can compare straight women and bi women. When we do, we can see that in 2022, 2.6% of straight women experienced some form of sexual violence, compared to 20% of bi women.
CSEW data on gender-based violence and trans people isn’t publicly available, but studies in the US using similar survey data show that trans people are four times as likely to experience sexual violence compared to cis people.
So LGBTQIA women and non-binary people are living in a world where hate crimes that target us because of our sexual orientation or gender identity have been rising for a decade. We are also exposed to extremely high rates of gendered violence: far higher than our straight and cis peers.
As with so many of the things I’ve written about for Lesbian Visibility Week, writing this has not been an academic exercise for me. In the words of the late Shane MacGowan: “I’ve been spat on, and shat on, and raped and abused.” The last time I was sexually assaulted was less than a year ago, on the way to work. I get homophobic and misogynistic abuse online routinely. When I ask: “why me?” the answer hasn’t always been clear. Maybe because I’m a woman, or a visible queer, or a visible queer woman. Maybe just unlucky.
What I do know is that this is intolerable. LGBTQIA women and non-binary people should be able to go about their lives without fear, without hypervigilance, without elaborate safety routines. We should be able to breathe in and out without a weight on our chests. Something needs to change.
Lesbian Visibility Week
22 April – 28 April 2024
This Lesbian Visibility Week we will be celebrating the power of sisterhood by uplifting incredible LGBTQIA women and non-binary people from every generation, in every field and in every country around the world. One community, so many brilliant individuals. This year we are building on Lesbian Visibility Week’s incredible success with unified not uniform – a global campaign celebrating the power and diversity of our community. As ever, our aims are to build public understanding of LGBTQIA women and non-binary people’s lives, to increase lesbian visibility and to create a legacy that benefits our community everywhere.
You can find out more and get involved at: lesbianvisibilityweek.com
DIVA magazine celebrates 30 years in print in 2024. If you like what we do, then get behind LGBTQIA media and keep us going for another generation. Your support is invaluable.
