It’s 2017, and LGBTQ folks are still scared to simply exist. A Stonewall.org poll conducted with YouGov, which surveyed 5,000 LGBTQ individuals living in Britain, made this abundantly clear.
Responses to the survey were nothing short of horrifying. First off, more than half of gay men in Britain stated that they do not feel comfortable holding hands with a partner in public or in the street.
But this was just a fraction of the disheartening news to come out of the survey. The other had to do with matters of violence and discrimination.
Quoting the Stonewall report:
One in five LGBT people (21 per cent) have experienced a hate crime or incident due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months
Two in five trans people (41 per cent) have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months and one in six LGB people, who aren’t trans (16 per cent), have experienced a hate crime or incident due to their sexual orientation in the same period.
The number of lesbian, gay and bisexual people who have experienced a hate crime or incident in the last year because of their sexual orientation has risen by 78 per cent from 9 per cent in 2013 to 16 per cent in 2017.
One in five LGBT people (21 per cent) have experienced a hate crime or incident due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months.
Four in five LGBT people (81 per cent) who experienced a hate crime or incident didn't report it to the police.
Three in ten LGBT people (29 per cent) avoid certain streets because they do not feel safe there as an LGBT person.
More than a third of LGBT people (36 per cent) say they don’t feel comfortable walking down the street while holding their partner's hand. This increases to three in five gay men (58 per cent)
One in ten LGBT people (10 per cent) have experienced homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse online directed towards them personally in the last month. This number increases to one in four for trans people (26 per cent) directly experiencing transphobic abuse online in the last month.
One in six LGBT people (17 per cent) who visited a café, restaurant, bar or nightclub in the last 12 months have been discriminated against based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity
One in ten LGBT people (10 per cent) who were looking for a house or flat to rent or buy in the last year were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
One in four black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT people (24 per cent) accessing social services in the last year have been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation
Almost three in ten LGBT people (28 per cent) who visited a faith service or place of worship in the past 12 months experienced discrimination.
One in ten LGBT people (10 per cent) who attended a live sporting event in the last year experienced discrimination because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
While terrifying and depressing, this news is by no means surprising. Around the world, even in countries that are supposedly "great" for LGBTQ folks, many of us live in fear.
Hopefully, the results of this survey reach as wide an audience as possible. Only when we all admit there is a huge problem, can we take the actions to remedy it.
Read Stonewall's full report here.
