It is impossible to know how much of the surge in reported hate crimes against LGBTQ people is due to escalating harassment and violence, and how much is down to the increased willingness of victims to inform the authorities. What we do know that is that recorded homophobic and transphobic hate crimes have jumped every year since 2015, and yet with an estimated four in five still going unreported, the already grisly figures only hint at a far bleaker reality.
The incidents vary in nature and severity: from abuse hurled at someone identified as LGBTQ because of their appearance, or mannerisms, or a fleeting or profound show of affection towards a partner;
When a hate crime, which should be reported, now includes mispronouning someone, through shouting pansy at them, to actually beating them up on leaving a pub, whereas in times gone by only that last would qualify, we can take a stab at trying to explain the rise in reported LGBTQ hate crimes.
As the definition has changed so has the incidence.
If we do that interesting thing of going out and observing actual human beings the general societal attitude is hugely better than it was back then. Well, except among certain groups of new arrivals but then that’s also something not to be spoken of, isn’t it?
There are no openly trans national politicians,
Nonsense. I worked rather hard to get one elected as an MEP. True, I’d not argue that was the most inspired candidate selection ever but whatever errors there were were nothing to do with her being trans.