Violence against LGBTQ+ people across Europe reaches highest levels in a decade

Of the 448 hate-related incidents recorded in Ireland by An Garda Síochána in 2021, 15% were motivated by the victim's sexual orientation. Picture: iStock

Last year was the most violent year for LGBTQ+ people in Europe in a decade, according to a new report.

Launched today, the report examines the growing prevalence of anti-LGBTQ+ speech as well as violent attacks, murders, and suicide.

ILGA-Europe, the leading LGBTQ+ equality organisation in Europe, said that pervasive hate speech across the region had led to deadly consequences.

In a year that saw terror attacks outside LGBTQ+ bars in both Norway and Slovakia, the group warns that violence has become "increasingly planned and deadly".

As a result, people in the community are feeling unsafe in countries right across Europe, even in countries where it is widely believed that LGBTQ+ people are accepted.

The report notes that a further rise in transphobic speech has been identified in Ireland along with Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. It also mentions "hostile media reporting" on the topic.

Ireland is among the countries seen to have increased barriers in healthcare for trans people.

According to the report, a dozen far-right groups targeting people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been identified in Ireland.

ILGA-Europe executive director, Evelyne Paradis: While '[e]expressions of solidarity are always needed, it does not address the foundation of the problem.' Picture: ilga-europe.org

The most recent statistics from An Garda Síochána show that, of the 448 hate crimes and hate-related incidents in 2021, 15% were motivated by the victim's sexual orientation.

Hate crimes against the community have become a serious issue in Dublin with the report highlighting the violent attacks on Mark Sheehan while going home on a bus with friends and Evan Somers who was assaulted on Dame Street last April.

"Many politicians have reacted with horror to the killings of LGBTI people this year and, while clear expressions of solidarity are always needed, it does not address the foundation of the problem," said ILGA-Europe's executive director, Evelyne Paradis.

She called on leaders to proactively fight the rise of hate speech "rather than finding themselves in the position of reacting to its consequences".

Policy and Research Manager with LGBT Ireland, Pádraig Rice, who contributed to the report, has referred to the "year of hate" that the community in Ireland has faced.  

"Every month for the last 12, there has been coverage in GCN, a monthly LGBTQ community magazine, of a serious attack on an LGBTQ+ person," Mr Rice said.

"The truth is homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia are an everyday reality for many LGBTQ+ people in Ireland. 

It spans from the slurs that go unchallenged in the schoolyard and the workplace to LGBTQ+ people being attacked on the streets and murdered in their homes.

Many people do not report hate-related incidents, Mr Rice says, adding that a report by LGBT Ireland found that 75% of people have been verbally abused due to their SOGI while one in five have been punched, hit or physically attacked in public.

The new hate crime legislation being considered is a step in the right direction but, he said, it is just one step. Real change will take a sustained and continued over the years to come.

"We need to ban conversion therapy, provide legal gender recognition to transgender young people and non-binary people and fund transgender healthcare service," Mr Rice said.