Hate crime has been increasing exponentially over the last few years, even in areas considered formerly safe like central London and Soho. This is, of course, connected with the growing culture war against trans people encouraged by the right-wing press and the former Tory government but has also been contributed to by sections of the Labour Party sympathetic to the TERF agenda and prepared to capitulate to their agenda. This has been turbocharged by the Fascist and Far Right movements led by Robinson et al. and linked to Reform.
Increase
In June police were called in Newham after a masked person defaced the Pride flag outside Forest Gate station.
The UK, which once used to be one of Europe’s most welcoming places to be gay, has seen a 462% increase in sexual orientation hate crime reports since 2012.
The number of reports regarding transphobia has shot up even further with a 1,426% increase, according to the House of Commons Hate Crime Statistics report.
This is a jump from 310 reports recorded in 2012, to 4,732 last year.
London is not the worst region by any means and the map of shame is as follows:
- Merseyside – 3,346
- West Yorkshire – 2,591
- West Midlands – 2,502
- South Yorkshire – 2,334
- Greater Manchester – 2,133
- Cheshire – 2,068
- Kent – 2,056
- North Wales – 1,951
- Essex – 1,922
- Gwent – 1,919
Underestimates
But it is feared these figures are in reality much higher, with charity Galop claiming more than 90% of anti-LGBT hate crime goes unreported.
Ruth Mason, Director of Services at LGBT+ anti-abuse charity Galop, said:
“Galop runs the National LGBT+ Hate Crime Helpline, so we know that the figures are a poor representation of the reality of hate crime for LGBT+ people … In 2023, we saw a 65% increase in LGBT+ victims of hate crime coming to us for support. The true extent of anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in this country is simply unknown, as the majority of LGBT+ hate crimes are not officially reported.”
This comes as the International lesbian, gay, Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association annual rainbow ranked the UK 16th out of 49 European countries on their legal and policy practices for LGBTQ+ people.
Factors include the government not following through on their promises to ban conversion therapy, and NHS banning the use of puberty blockers on children.
Attacks
Last year saw a number of horrific homophobic attacks in London with a couple being attacked near the Two Brewers pub in Clapham.
“Attacks on LGBTI people with a conscious and deliberate will to kill and injure have increased to unprecedented levels,” said a recent report by ILGA, pointing to the recent terror attacks at LGBTQIA+ venues in Norway and Slovakia in 2022, which left four people dead and 22 injured (combined).”
“[W]e have been saying for years now that hate speech in all its forms translates into actual physical violence. This phenomenon is not only in countries where hate speech is rife, but also in countries where it is widely believed that LGBTI people are progressively accepted.”
London’s LGBTQ+ community would certainly agree.
“It’s going back to what it was in the 1990s,” says Rebecca*, the owner of a LGBTQ+ venue in Soho, who has seen an uptick in customers being harassed in recent months — particularly concerning, when venues like hers have always been seen as spaces the LGBTQ+ community could come to feel safe. “We shouldn’t be treated like second-class citizens,” says Robbie de Santos, 38, director of external affairs for the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, who was the victim of a homophobic hate crime himself 19 years ago.
Retreat
There seems to be a retreat into the LGBTQ community trying to protect itself, without much external support. In a report in the Evening Standard last year an LGBTQ bar owner opined that they had to form their own self defence.
So what’s being done? Not enough, if you ask most members of the LGBTQ+ community. Bar owner Rebecca says she feels that she and her staff have to act as the police in many incidents. “The police don’t do anything about it. For every bar in London, we are the security,” she says. Mark Oakley, owner of Eagle London in Vauxhall, agrees. “Customers are getting assaulted weekly, security guards are getting abused. We’ve had incident after incident. We are on the front line.”
Venues say they’ve begged the police to help, while the Met Police says it is aware of the rise in attacks against LGBTQ+ people and is determined to bring those responsible to justice. But many victims say they’re loathe to report LGBTQ+ hate crimes in the first place, when a report this year found the police themselves to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
Galop, the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ anti-abuse charity, welcomes reporting but says that even if hate crimes are reported, the amount of support for victims afterwards is often lacking. The charity has seen a 65 per cent increase in LGBTQ+ hate crime victims coming to it for support in the last year, with homelessness as a result of LGBTQ+ hate crime a particularly under-reported issue. This issue of the community having no trust in the Met is a long and historic one. The recent Casey report into the Met showed that it was brimming with homophobia and the Steven Port case showed how that extended even to victims of homophobic murders and their families.
Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ charity, hit out at the UK Government last year for what it believes to be a lack of action in tackling this rising epidemic of violence against queer people. It has criticised the fact that the Home Office has not renewed its Hate Crime Action Plan, which was initially introduced to encourage more reporting of hate crimes and to improve police responses. “The UK Government failed to implement any sort of strategy that responds to their own statistics and reports.”
LGBTQ Liaison
One positive move by the Met last year was the reintroduction of LGBTQ Liaison officers.
The roles were created in conjunction with LGBTQ+ people and the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group (IAG), feedback from which showed it that “the expectations and requirements of LGBT+ community liaison had changed.”
LGBT+ Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) will provide support and advice to peers, colleagues and members of the public on LGBTQ+ issues.
“It’s our duty to protect and serve all members of our community, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristics,” said PC Sam Varnham, the CLO for Harrow, Barnet and Brent. “It’s important that we work to create a world where everyone can feel safe and accepted for who they are.
UNITE
Clearly the rise in transphobic and homophobic hate crime is part of the overall increase in support for the Far Right and Fascism which was displayed most publicly and horrendously in the recent riots. UNITE’s programme of Unity Over Division must include a strong LGBTQ component and in all of the union’s work with workplaces and branches the targeting of the LGBTQ community by the Far Right and its supporters must play a central role. Following the recent attacks and the continuing rise in hate crime against all minorities, there is a need for UNITE, led by our equalities committees to organise an event under the auspices of UNITY OVER DIVISION to formulate a response to this and to go forward together. Working with the Mayor, our region needs to play a role in this attempt to defuse a toxic attack on our community.
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