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.

Links:

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

Protest and Pride - Dr Tom Hulme

Sex, Love, and Everyday Life: A History of Northern Ireland before Gay Liberation

Protest and Pride: Unearthing Northern Ireland’s Hidden Queer Past – In the shadowed corners of history, beneath the layers of repression and silence, lies a vibrant, defiant queer world in Northern Ireland—long before the activists, the marches, and the pride banners. It’s a story of clandestine courage, of characters who dared to love and live openly in a society obsessed with shame and suppression. Protest & Pride

From the ‘female husband’ working Belfast’s docks in the 1880s—an early rebel defying gender norms—to the first lesbian activist of the 1960s, Belfast’s queer history pulses with resilience. Scandals like the Victorian male brothel discovered in the docks, or the circulation of Jazz Age novels that celebrated forbidden desires, reveal a city alive with subversion. These stories challenge the lie that Northern Ireland’s past was only about conflict and repression. It was also about secret societies of lovers, clandestine meetings in alleyways, and whispered confidences over the counter in bookshops selling forbidden titles.

The police raids and newspaper revelations in the mid-20th century sought to crush these whispers, but they only amplified the underground roar. Men who cruised Queen Square or the entries, who exchanged glances and love letters—many paid dearly for their truth. Prison cells, family shame, exile—yet their stories persisted, woven into the fabric of Belfast’s hidden history.

But this history is not just one of shame and suffering. Diaries and letters from men like David Robinson and the sailors who brought queer culture ashore reveal a city brimming with life, desire, and daring. Women like Margaret Dobbs and Rose Young defied conventions, their “romantic friendships” a silent protest against the suffocating silence enforced by society.

Today, we must remember these stories—not as relics of the past, but as proof of an enduring struggle. We demand acknowledgement of those who dared to love in secret, who fought against the walls of repression—who, in their silence, roared resistance. The sodomy campaign was never just about criminality; it was about stripping us of our humanity, our right to love freely.

Let this be the call to awaken our collective memory. To protest, to say boldly: the queer past of Northern Ireland was never just darkness. It was a spark—waiting, still waiting—to ignite the future of pride and liberation.

This was a wonderful, enlightening and entertaining talk by Dr Tom Holme, Queen’s University, held in the Linen Hall Library on Tuesday, 23rd July 2025 at 1 PM. Tom at the lectern

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