The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found that violence and harassment against LGBTQ people in Europe reached a “new high,” according to Euractiv.
FRA published a new report on May 14. The agency found that even though more such people felt able to openly declare their identity, the discrimination they faced “remains high.” FRA polled more than 100,000 LGBTQ representatives in 27 EU member states, as well as in Albania, North Macedonia, and Serbia.
The survey found that 14 per cent of respondents reported having been physically or sexually assaulted in the five years prior to the 2023 survey, with intersex people experiencing the most violence. A sign of “gradual progress” in openness is that 36 per cent of respondents experienced discrimination in the 12 months prior to the survey, compared to 42 per cent reported in 2019.
LGBTQ people paradox
The findings constituted a “clear red flag,” although they “present a paradox,” FRA director Sirpa Rautio stated.
On the one hand, people are becoming more open about their sexual orientation. On the other hand, everyday harassment, bullying in schools, hate crime and alarmingly high rates of violence tell another story.
Rautio claimed that most LGBTQ people “still avoid holding hands with their partner in public” for fear of being assaulted. However, the Vienna-based agency stated that incident data was grossly underreported.
More than one in every 10 LGBTQ people had experienced violence in the five years prior to the survey, a slight increase from 2019. Compared to one in three in 2019, hatred-based harassment now affects more than one in two LGBTQ people.
Furthermore, bullying in schools has risen dramatically. More than two in three respondents reported being bullied, a sharp increase from one in two in 2019. In Hungary, which had restricted LGBT rights in recent years, only three per cent of respondents claimed their government “combats prejudice and intolerance.” This is the lowest rate in the bloc compared to the EU average of 26 per cent.
In order to better combat anti-LGBTQ online misinformation and hate campaigns, the FRA called on member states to “address the risk of bias in algorithms and ensure the accountability of digital platforms under EU law.”
