LGBT Hate Crime:
Recognise It,
Report It
A new campaign to raise awareness of LGBT hate crime, and to encourage people to report it, begins today. With the message of ‘Recognise it. Report it.’ the campaign will empower LGB and T people to stand up against hate crime through education and training as well as establishing local partnerships. The campaign is delivered jointly by 31 LGBT organisations across England & Wales and funded by the Equality & Human Rights Commission.
Reports on LGBT hate crime show:
- 4,622 homophobic and 555 transphobic crimes reported in 2013 in England & Wales – about 100 a week (Home Office).
- Only an estimated 6% of anti-LGBT harassment in the UK is reported to the police (EU survey, 2014).
- The impact of hate crime is enormous: 34% of people who experience hate crime are very emotionally affected by it compared with 14% who experience other types of crime (Home Office review, 2013).
At London Friend we know that people can turn to using drugs or alcohol as a means of coping with the stress of being targeted in a hate crime attack. Additionally as we’ve seen more and more gay & bisexual men using dating and hook-up apps such as Grindr to arrange ‘chemsex’ contact, and we’ve seen cases where such apps are used to target men in hate crime attacks.
At London Friend we want to help people recognise incidents of hate crime, and provide support for them to both report it and deal with the emotional issues this might bring. Through our drug and alcohol service Antidote, and our general counselling service, we can provide help to reduce the risks of slipping into problematic drug or alcohol use, as well as help rebuild self-confidence following a hate crime incident.
The campaign’s website contains details of local LGBT organisations offering support across England & Wales. Hate crime can be reported to local police, or through LGBT organisations such as GALOP.
The full press release for the campaign can be read below.
Press Release: Hidden 'scandal' of LGB and T hate crime exposed
Fear of how they will be treated is leading to thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGB and T) not reporting hate crimes. As a result perpetrators are evading justice, a new report published today reveals.
Evidence suggests around 35,000 cases of hate crime committed against people because of their sexual orientation go unreported every year. The work, supported by GB governments and produced for the Equality and Human Rights Commission, found that 88 per cent of LGB and T people had experienced some form of hate incident leaving them with emotional and physical scars.
Yet research conducted by the University of Leicester's Centre for Hate Studies found only 14 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual victims reported their most recent experience of hate crime to the police.
Evidence shows that while victims of transphobia can be targeted up to 50 times in one year, only three in ten report the incident.
The launch of the report coincides with a major new campaign to raise awareness of LGB and T hate crime by a partnership of 31 organisations, funded by the Commission.
With the message of ‘Recognise it. Report it.’ the campaign will empower LGB and T people to stand up against hate crime through education and training as well as establishing local partnerships.
Led by the LGBT Consortium, this is the first time that groups from across England and Wales have come together to tackle hate crime, with a focus on rural communities where reporting is especially low.
Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of the LGBT Consortium, said:
“LGBT communities are already working with the police to remove barriers to reporting, and offer practical and emotional support. However, too often, LGBT people don’t know they are experiencing hate crime or just shrug it off.
“Collectively, we are saying it is time to move on from this. Our message today is recognise hate crime when it happens, report it, and get support when you need it.”
Figures highlighted in the report include:
- Only 4,267 incidents were recorded by police in 2013, despite the Crime Survey for England and Wales showing 39,000 homophobic hate incidents over the same period. That's nine times higher than the reported figure
- Eight in ten LGB people have been verbally abused or harassed and one in ten have been physically assaulted
- One in eight LGB people had received unwanted sexual contact.
The report lists a variety of reasons for under-reporting including the ‘normalisation’ of hate incidents, concern about wasting police time, fears about being outed and previous negative experiences with the police.
Equality and Human Rights Commissioner Evelyn Asante-Mensah, called for committed action:
“Pride season is upon us and it seems an opportune moment to reflect on the great steps made towards equality, while also realising that LGB and T communities still have to live with severe forms of discrimination and prejudice.
“Just as the Commission is doing with disability hate crime, we need to bring this problem into the open and create a culture where victims are confident to come forward and society confronts all forms of abuse.”
The report makes a series of recommendations to tackle the issues surrounding reporting of hate crimes. These include; increased community outreach by police to build trust with LGB and T communities; an increase in third party reporting systems where needed; increasing awareness of how and where to report hate crime and looking at what can be learned from the reporting of other types of hate crime.
Galop, a specialist LGBT anti-violence charity, has joined the year-long anti-hate crime initiative as one of the lead delivery partners. Their Chief Executive, Nik Noone, spoke of the urgent need for the partnership, saying:
“It is not acceptable that people go so long without support and assistance, so I am pleased that the EHRC is steadfastly behind our partnership’s work to build strong local community responses to homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in every village, town and city.”
Report author, Dr Stevie-Jade Hardy, a lecturer at the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies, said:
“Hate crimes are a routine, and mostly unreported feature of many LGB and T people’s daily lives.
“Simply expecting victims to report without taking meaningful action to dismantle perceived and actual barriers is futile, particularly when the evidence shows that many have little confidence in the capacity of authorities to act empathetically or effectively.”
The Commission is also funding the UK’s only 24/7 nationwide LGB and T hate crime helpline, run by Stop Hate UK – 0808 801 0661.
Other regional helplines can be found at www.lgbthatecrime.org.uk
Ends
For more press information and interviews contact the Commission’s media office on 0161 829 8102, out of office hours 07767 272 818.
Notes to Editors
The Home Office, Ministry of Justice Westminster Government Equalities Office, Welsh Government and Crown Office Scotland representatives all sit on the project’s Expert Reference Group.
A further programme will begin shortly in Scotland to complement the work in England and Wales.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body established under the Equality Act 2006. It is an independent body responsible for protecting and promoting equality and human rights in Great Britain. It aims to encourage equality and diversity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, and protect and promote human rights. The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. It encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 and is accredited by the UN as an ‘A status’ National Human Rights Institution.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has funded this Partnership from February 2015 through to March 2016.
LGBT Consortium is the umbrella body for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Voluntary and Community Organisations in the United Kingdom. It provides support for organisations so they are able to deliver services to LGBT individuals.
Galop is London’s LGBT anti-violence & abuse charity. It gives advice and support to people who have experienced biphobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexual violence or domestic abuse. It also supports lesbian, gay, bi, trans people who have had problems with the police or have questions about the criminal justice system.
Stop Hate is one of the leading national organisations working to challenge all forms of hate crime and discrimination, based on any aspect of an individual’s identity. Stop Hate UK provides independent, confidential and accessible reporting and support for victims, witnesses and third parties.
LGBT Consortium Project partners are:
Allsorts Youth Project
Birmingham LGBT
Bi UK
Camden LGBT Centre
East London Out Project (ELOP)
Galop
Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES)
Gendered Intelligence
Health Equality and Rights Organisation t/a GMFA
Lancashire LGBT
Leicester LGBT
LGBT Consortium
LGBT Foundation
LGBTQ Youth Cornwall
London Friend
METRO
Mosaic LGBT Youth Group
North East LGBT Federation
Outreach Liverpool
PACE
Proud 2 b Parents
Proud2Be Project
Regard
SexYOUality
Space Youth Project
Stonewall Housing
The Intercom Trust
Trans Media Watch
Unity Group Wales
Yorkshire MESMAC
Youth North West
Details of the partnership’s objectives can be found here.