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UK Research: Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate and Rising Trends

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Hate Crime Statistics die Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate and Rising Trends

The data on UK hate crimes presents a complex picture. Recent official statistics show a 2% decrease in sexual orientation-related hate crimes (from 19,127 to 18,702) and an 11% decrease in transgender identity-related crimes (from 4,258 to 3,809) in 2024/25. However, advocacy groups caution that these figures don’t tell the full story.

The statistics exclude Metropolitan Police data due to reporting changes, which significantly affect LGBTQ+ data, given that many LGBTQ+ people live in London. Additionally, over the past five years, hate crimes based on sexual orientation have risen by around 44% and those based on trans identity have nearly doubled at 88%.

LGBTQ+ hate crime charity Galop saw a 60% increase in LGBTQ+ hate crime victims coming to them for support in 2024, suggesting the official figures underestimate the true scale of the problem. Fewer than one in ten LGBTQ+ people report hate crimes or incidents to police, with half feeling the police wouldn’t do anything.

The Supreme Court Ruling

In April 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the legal definition of woman under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex assigned at birth. The case originated from a challenge by For Women Scotland to Scottish legislation requiring 50% of public board members to be women, which included transgender women with gender recognition certificates.

The ruling determined that interpreting ‘sex’ as certificated sex would cut across the definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in an incoherent way, and that transgender women could be excluded from same-sex facilities such as changing rooms if proportionate.

Many LGBTQ+ people are living in fear following the Supreme Court judgment, according to advocacy groups, though this period doesn’t fall within the most recent hate crime statistics. The ruling effectively forced trans people to use sex-segregated public services and facilities according to their sex-assigned at birth, contrary to their identity and appearance.

Reform UK’s Growing Influence

Reform UK’s manifesto pledges to ban “transgender ideology” in primary and secondary schools, with no gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping, and mandates single-sex facilities in schools. The party also states it will scrap the 2010 Equality Act and eliminate diversity, equality and inclusion roles.

69% of Reform UK voters believe that trans people should not be able to legally change their gender via a gender recognition certificate, though 65% still believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. The 10 English councils now controlled by Reform have banned the flying of Pride flags, limiting flagpoles to the Union Jack and regional emblems.

Reform UK’s electoral threat has pushed both Conservative and Labour parties to adopt more conservative positions on gender self-identification and transgender rights, framing these policies around safeguarding concerns for cisgender women and children.

Online Harassment and Platform Safety

GLAAD’s 2025 Social Media Safety Index found that platforms broadly under-moderated anti-LBGTQ+ hate content while over-moderating LGBTQ+ users, including taking down hashtags containing phrases such as queer, trans and non-binary. In the UK, coordinated far-right and Christian extremist online campaigns have targeted Pride events with fabricated claims that they are “sexualising public spaces,” with these narratives emboldening physical protests and attacks such as those witnessed at London Pride in 2024.

Two in five LGBTQ+ young people, including 58% of trans young people, have been targets of homophobic, biphobic or transphobic online abuse, while nearly all (97%) have witnessed it. Less than half of LGBTQ+ victims of online abuse reported their experiences to social media platforms, and less than one in ten reported to police.

School Bullying

A 2024 YouGov poll found that 47% of LGBTQ+ youth in the UK have been bullied or discriminated against at school or university because of their sexual orientation, and 25% faced bullying due to their gender identity. Half of those who experienced bullying never reported it, and of those who did report it to staff, more than seven in ten said staff responded badly.

Respondents reported being locked in toilets, kicked, verbally and sexually abused, with some being driven to suicidal thoughts, while others complained of teachers purposefully misgendering and mocking them in classrooms. 43% of LGBT+ school students have been bullied compared to 21% of non-LGBT+ students.

Conclusion

The research confirms the article’s themes for the UK context: rising anti-LBGTQ+ sentiment manifesting in hate crimes, discriminatory political developments like the Supreme Court ruling, the growing influence of anti-trans political parties like Reform UK, widespread online harassment, and persistent bullying in schools. While official hate crime statistics show recent decreases, the broader five-year trend shows significant increases, and underreporting remains a major issue.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate and Rising Trends

Links:

#LGBTQRights #TransRights #HateCrimes #UKPOLITICS #QueerRights #EndTransphobia #EndHomophobia #ProtectTransYouth #Equality #HumanRights #LGBTQSafety #UKNews #StandWithLGBTQ

 

GLAAD discontinues report on TV’s LGBT characters!

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All major networks were 'adequate' or above (Photo: Empire, Fox)

All major networks were ‘adequate’ or above (Photo: Empire, Fox)

Media charity GLAAD has announced it will no longer publish an annual report monitoring the quantity, quality, and diversity of LGBT representation on TV.

The charity this week published its ninth annual Network Responsibility Index, which identifies TV networks who have excelled at representing LGBT people, storylines and characters, as well as those who have failed to do so.

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However, as the report enters its ninth year, nearly all US TV networks are ranked ‘adequate’ or above – with the FOX network becoming the first major broadcaster to be ranked ‘excellent’

The charity confirmed that its new report will also be the last.

GLAAD CEO & President Sarah Kate Ellis said: “The ninth edition of the NRI marks the first time in the report’s history that a major broadcast network – FOX – received an ‘Excellent’ as a grade.

“This milestone highlights real change across the media landscape – especially considering that the network received a ‘Failing’ grade in the NRI’s first two editions.”

She added: “GLAAD’s Network Responsibility Index has helped reshape the television landscape, inspiring LGBT characters and storylines that move acceptance forward.

“As representations of LGBT people in the media continue to rise in number, pushing television networks to make those representations more diverse is more crucial than ever. This requires a different set of tools than the NRI provides, and as such GLAAD will shift focus to its annual TV diversity and transgender reports.”

The organisation will now focus on its annual Where We Are On TV Report – which focuses more on the diversity of LGBT images.

Monitoring the original prime-time programming of major network, the final NRI awarded the grades:
Excellent: ABC Family and FOX
Good: ABC, CW, FX, HBO, MTV, Showtime
Adequate: CBS, NBC, TLC, TNT, USA
Failing: A&E, History

ABC Family, which was ranked excellent alongside FOX, hit a record high with 74% of original programming including LGBT people or characters – of whom 79% were lesbians and 49% were people of colour. It also featured a transgender character played by a transgender actor.

Meanwhile, FOX won praise for representing LGBT people of colour on hit shows including Empire and Gotham

GLAAD: LGBT Characters All But Disappeared in Movies

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GLAAD’s 2015 survey reports that only 17.5 percent of Hollywood studio films featured LGBT characters — and gives failing grades to Sony and Disney.
Republished from The Advocate: BY ADAM SANDEL  APRIL 15 2015 11:40 AM ET

GLAAD monitored films such as The Interview with Eminem.

GLAAD monitored films such as The Interview with Eminem.


In its third annual survey of LGBT representation in Hollywood movies, GLAAD reports that only 17.5 percent of studio releases featured queer characters — and many of them appear only fleetingly.
No studio earned an “excellent” grade in GLAAD’s report. Warner Bros. was graded “good,” Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount and Universal were deemed “adequate,” while Sony and Disney “failed.”
Although fewer defamatory LGBT images appeared in Hollywood films than in years past, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Horrible Bosses 2, and the Will Ferrell comedy Get Hard featured damaging attitudes and stereotypes.
“More inclusive portrayals of LGBT characters are being seen on television and through streamed content than ever before,” says GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis. “But according to GLAAD’s third annual Studio Responsibility Index, released today, America’s major film studios lag far behind other media when it comes to nuanced portrayals of LGBT people.” Ellis also explores the findings of this year’s report in this Hollywood Reporter column.
Read the complete 2015 Studio Responsibility Index.
GLAAD monitored films such as The Interview with Eminem.