UK: Around 100 LGBT hate crimes are recorded each week by police
Although crime rates may be dropping, a new report suggests LGBT people are still experiencing high levels of abuse in the UK.
Research by London LGBT hate crime charity Galop shows 98 homophobic and transphobic crimes are recorded each week by police across Britain.
A quarter of all reported homophobic crime and a fifth of all reported transphobic crime happens in London.
Compared with figures on other types of hate crime, such as racism, the proportion of homophobic hate crime at a national level is on the rise.
9% of UK reported hate crime was homophobic. That rose to 10% in 2010 and 11% in 2011. Figures for 2012 are still being processed.
Galop states over half of homophobic and transphobic crime is not reported to the police, meaning many people suffer in silence. 1 in 8 lesbian, gay or bisexual people are the target of hate crime each year.
3 in 4 transgender people are the target of hate crime annually.
LGBT people are also more likely to experience crime. 1 in 3 lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience a crime each year compared with only 1 in 4 heterosexual people.
1 in 14 lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience violence annually compared with 1 in 33 heterosexual people.
Nick Antjoule, who authored the report, said: “This highlights the violence and abuse against Londoners which remains unchallenged. The police do a great job in difficult circumstances but I think this should be a wakeup call for us all.
“Now we have marriage equality, it’s easy to think equality has been achieved. But the harder battles against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia are still to be won.
“Making sense of crime figures can be really tricky but we hope this will empower people to hold their local police and council to account.”
However, several London boroughs including Barking & Dagenham recorded a rise.
The Met Police’s Barking and Dagenham LGBT Liaison Team claimed the rise in the borough was down to increased reporting – but the chairman of Barking and Dagenham’s LGBT network disagreed and warned against complacency.
