Hate crime in numbers: the UK is failing it’s transgender community with a 55 per cent rise in hate
- Megan Geall
- Apr 10, 2023
- 3 min read
‘I’m always looking over my shoulder,’ says Eva Echo, activist and director of innovation at Birmingham Pride
Transgender hate crimes have risen by 55 per cent in the last year, leaving the transgender community across England and Wales vulnerable to verbal and physical abuse.
Over a 10 year period, police forces across the country have recorded a total of 17,677 hate crimes motivated by transgender identity, with figures from 2022 making up 24.6 per cent – a total of 4355 recorded offences in a year.
While race has constituted the largest number of reported hate crimes every year since 2011, it is the rate of increase that is most concerning. Racially-motivated crimes have increased at the slowest rate in the last decade at 206 per cent, while transgender motivated attacks led with a 1291 percent increase – hate crimes motivated by disability ranked second with an increase of 715 per cent by the end of the 10-year period.
With transgender hate crimes rising at a rate that is almost double than any other motivating factor, this reveals a concerning precedent for the transgender people and raises questions over the forces in place to protect those who are a part of the community.
“Since coming out, my social anxiety has rocketed because of what I’ve experienced,” explains Eva Echo, who identifies as transgender and works as the director of innovation at Birmingham Pride. “Having experienced close calls with physical hate, I’m now forever worried it may happen again if I relax when I’m out.”
On a night out with friends, Eva describes receiving comments from groups of men, being followed, and having to “jump into a taxi” to escape physical assault.
“Another incident was a man getting incredibly angry because he’d spent five minutes checking me out from behind,” says Mx Echo. “It was a good job my partner was with me at the time as he started getting verbally abusive.”
It is not just instances of physical assault that are recorded by the police; hate crime also includes verbal abuse and incitement of hate content in photos, messages, or other online content.
“Online, I get hate all the time,” says Mx Echo. “All sorts, from deliberate misgendering, to verbal abuse, to death threats.”
However, due to the severity and mental impact of physical instances, these hate crimes are reported more often than those on social media. For Eva Echo, it is the physical threat which impacts her the most.
“I only really go out if I need to or if I’m with a group going to a safe environment,” she shares, describing known LGBTQ+ areas in Birmingham as the places she feels the safest. “I’m always cautious whenever I’m out. I rarely use public toilets for fear of somebody making accusations at me or assaulting me because they think I have no right to be there.”
Looking at the data provided by the Home Office, the 10-year increase in hate crimes is drastic with the highest number of recorded hate crimes for the least year concentrated in the largest cities, specifically London, Manchester, Leeds, and Bradford.
The West Midlands police force ranked fourth for recorded number of transgender hate crimes last year, with Birmingham, Mx Echo’s home city, a likely hotspot.
“Public toilets and single sex spaces are the most vulnerable places,” says Mx Echo about her life in Birmingham. “With the constant fear-mongering over trans women being sexual predators or pretending to be trans to access women’s spaces, a really toxic and dangerous situation has been created [...] which is why so many of the trans community stick to going to certain, safe venues.”
The reality facing the transgender community is a continued rise in years to come. If the rate of increase continues at its current pace, the community is likely to see around 6500 hate crimes recorded in a year by 2024/2025. Unless real efforts are made in changing laws and public perception, the rising rate of hate crime is unlikely to change from its current path.
“We need to reframe the way we talk about trans people,” says Ms Echo. “There’s a huge gap in LGBTQ+ topics due to Section 28 but we now have a chance to put that right and to teach people at schools, so they grow up to be more inclusive.”
Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 banned local authorities and schools from “promoting homosexuality”, ultimately creating a lack of awareness around sexual orientation and identities.
While major steps have been made in educating people on the LGBTQ+ community since Section 28 was removed in 2003, there are still legal inequalities in place as well.
“Freedom of speech must be protected, of course, but it should never be at the detriment of actual lives,” says Mx Echo on tackling remaining inequalities. She adds: “We need allies to step up and take action whenever they hear or see something transphobic.”
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