EU finds rise in violence against LGTBI people

More and more LGTBI people openly accept being LGBT and discrimination has decreased slightly, but violence against the group has also increased. These are some of the findings of the study ‘Equality of LGBTIQ people at a crossroads: progress and challenges’ conducted by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) based on more than 100,000 interviews in the most important EU countries. North Macedonia and Serbia.

14% of those surveyed admitted that they had suffered physical attacks, compared to 11% in a 2019 analysis conducted by that organization. This increase also occurs in Spain, where the percentage goes from 8% to 12%. Indeed, brutal homophobic attacks like the murder of Samuel in Galicia raised alarm bells in Spain in 2021. The general perception is that violence has increased: 59% of those surveyed across Europe and 75% in the case of Spain believe this.

The same happens in cases of harassment. More than half of LGTBI people faced hate-motivated harassment, compared to one in three a few years ago. In the case of intersex and transgender people, they faced harassment, with two out of three admitting it. A quarter of those surveyed claim to have been subjected to conversion therapy.

However, the work also traces a “gradual reduction” in discrimination. This has decreased slightly in recent years, with more and more laws protecting the LGTBI community, although the data remains disparate. One in three LGTBI people admitted to facing discrimination, up from two in five in 2019. Another worrying detail is that according to the FRA, “discrimination remains invisible”, as only one in ten people report incidents.

67% of LGBTIQ people (66% in the case of Spain) report that they were ridiculed, harassed, insulted or threatened at school because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. FRA also states that bullying has increased while inclusive education has also increased. “Schools address LGBTIQ issues more often than before. “More than one in five LGBTIQ students now say their school has addressed the issue positively,” the report said.

According to the report’s findings, this entire situation clearly reflects on mental health problems. More than one in three people say they have thought about suicide, and half of transgender, non-binary and gender diverse people say they have had suicidal thoughts.