LGBTQ advocacy Archives

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

50 years young, Cara Friend is celebrating its half century in style. The bastion of hope and support for so many, during the time of repression, persecution and at times physical attacks for the LGBTQI+ community, Cara Friend is remembering its beginnings and looking forward to its future.

Northern Ireland, in many ways, has always been reluctant to move forward with change. In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised sexual activity between men over 21 in private in England and Wales; it did not apply to the Armed Forces, Merchant Navy or Scotland (later decriminalised on February 1st 1981), the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man.

But, Northern Ireland didn’t see change until 1982 with the Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order, which legalised homosexual acts between consenting adults. This change was brought about through the result of the Dudgeon v United Kingdom government case, which was the first successful case brought before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on the criminalisation of male homosexuality.

This trial was supported by NIGRA (Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association), the 1974 Committee, and Cara Friend, along with many other organisations andprivate individuals.

During April 2025, there have been several events celebrating Cara Friends’ half century of excellence:

A photographic exhibition of volunteers was launched and then put on display in the Linen Hall Library (which is very supportive of our community). This was brought about through funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund NI (and again, others, too many to list here – see back of the wonderful booklet “Dear Friend, The History of Cara-Friend 1974-2000”). The launch took place at a private showing for Cara Friend’s befrienders and selected guests on the evening of February 3, 2025, with the general public able to access it from February 4 to February 28, 2025. This exhibition of 21 exquisite portraits explores the experiences of Cara-Friend volunteers, including those who founded the charity and guided it through the 1970s and 1980s.
On the 12th February, a panel of four befriender originators of Cara Friend was held in the Linen Hall Library from 1=2pm. It was very well attended (and honest, no one fell asleep).

A wonderful booklet, as mentioned above, “Dear Friend, The History of Cara-Friend 1974-2000”, researched and produced by Michael Lawrence as part of a six-month internship with CF from Queen’s University.

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It is anticipated that the exhibition will travel to various Northern Ireland and UK venues, and will also be on show at Kent State University, USA.

The thanks of everyone involved in the project (befrienders, volunteers) are also given to photographer Timothy O’Connell and oral historian Dr. Molly Merryman. Many thanks also to the team at the Queer NI – Sexuality Before Liberation Project (funded by the AHRC, AH/V008404/1), including Dr. Charlie Lynch, for their support throughout the project.