Hate crime is everyday reality for rural LGBT people, study says

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/23/hate-crime-rural-lgbt-people-study

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LGBT people in Britain’s rural towns and villages are being bullied relentlessly because of their sexuality, leaving some too scared to leave the house, according to an expert in hate crime.

Stevie-Jade Hardy, a lecturer at the University of Leicester’s Centre for Hate Studies and the author of a report on hate crime, said harassment and verbal abuse was an everyday reality for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

She said LGBT people were being left “lonely and isolated with nowhere to turn”, but many did not report hate crimes because they feared that the police would not take them seriously or that they would be “outed” to their families.

“There were quite a few who mentioned being targeted by young people in their area,” Hardy said. “People would graffiti their house or cause criminal damage, young people when they walked down the street would verbally abuse them, call them derogatory names, and often it would start to escalate.

“If something was done about it, then they found that sometimes the instances got worse and those young people were targeting them more frequently. But it tended to be those more everyday experiences that are incredibly difficult to deal with – that drip-drip effect.”

Hardy pointed to national figures that suggest eight in 10 LGBT people have been verbally abused or harassed and one in 10 has been physically assaulted. She said LGBT people felt they were more likely to be the victim of hate crime if they were “noticeably different”, potentially making those in villages particularly vulnerable.

“Within rural locations those differences are maybe magnified, and so young people will often target someone who they see as being different in that context. People are actually scared to go out into their garden to enjoy the sun; some people had taken some practical steps like having CCTV put into their house.

“It can be really damaging, particularly in the rural locations it tended to be older LGBT people as well. And so there isn’t often that community or that group you can go to to access support. That was a big issue, just feeling lonely and isolated and that there is nowhere to turn.”

Hardy said 44 of the 50 people she had spoken to for her report – LGB&T Crime Reporting: Identifying Barriers and Solutions – had been a victim of a hate crime.

She said about 35,000 cases of hate crime against LGBT people went unreported each year. In 2012-13, 4,267 incidents were recorded by police. The Crime Survey for England and Wales showed 39,000 homophobic hate incidents over the same period.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is launching a campaign to encourage people to report abuse.

Its deputy chair, Caroline Waters, said it was unacceptable that the LGBT community “still face such persistent prejudice, abuse and discrimination”.

She said: “We are a country with proud traditions of tolerance and respect but we must not let important progress in areas such as same-sex marriage mask the acute and continuing challenges that still remain.

“Researchers in today’s report were told of victims’ fear of not being taken seriously, how they were scared of being ‘outed’ and suspicion and distrust of the authorities. We must all redouble our efforts, and work together to give LGBT communities a stronger voice and put an end to the hatred that is a blight on modern society.”

Paul Roberts, the chief executive of the LGBT Consortium, said: “LGBT communities are already working with the police to remove barriers to reporting, and offer practical and emotional support. However, too often LGBT people don’t know they are experiencing hate crime or just shrug it off.

“Collectively, we are saying it is time to move on from this. Our message today is recognise hate crime when it happens, report it, and get support when you need it.”

The equalities minister, Nicky Morgan, said: “The EHRC has my full support in its campaign to encourage LGB&T people to report hate crimes to the relevant authorities, and they deserve to know that when they report these abhorrent crimes they will be taken seriously and dealt with fairly.”