I’ve been the victim of a transphobic hate crime – I’m sadly not the only one
metro.co.ukmurder of a Black trans woman called Naomi Hersi in 2018 in Hounslow, and the murder of a gay doctor named Gary Jenkins in Bute Park last year.This worrying trend here in the UK should be a cause for concern for anyone.While these figures might also be partly explained by increased confidence in reporting these issues, the ones reported are only the tip of the iceberg.Many people would never report hate incidents or crime to the police simply because they don’t believe the police will do anything about it, or take them seriously.According to LGBTQ+ domestic abuse charity, Galop, only one in eight LGBTQ+ people had ‘reported the most recent incident that they had experienced to the police’.I know this to be true both from working with charities that support people, and from the stories of queer people around me.
LGBTQ+ people have also historically suffered stigma and discrimination from the police worldwide, so confidence that the police will support them is often low.Even in cases where issues have been reported to the police, I’ve heard from friends that there has often been no conclusion and cases have been dropped, or not recognised as a hate crime.This was also my experience.
In 2018, I reported someone to the police for targeted harassment online.The person in question had repeatedly targeted myself and my partner online, where they maliciously misgendered us, calling us slurs and repeatedly abused us.
When we reported this, we were brought in to give a statement, but the case was later dropped without any further investigation.A few years later, I reported the same person for sharing photos of me and other trans people online, where they encouraged others to mock our appearance, misgender us and abuse us.
