LGBTQ community victimized by increased threats, violence

Posted Jun 20, 2022, 7:48 am

James Van Bramer
The Crime Report

Pixabay

A spate of right-wing and internet hate has marked June’s Pride celebrations, prompting cancellations of numerous Pride events, especially ones for transgender rights or that included drag performances, reports NBC News.

In Texas last Sunday, a pastor railed against Pride month and said LGBTQ people “should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.”

The influx of hate mentions on social media and hateful rhetoric from far-right groups has led to an uptick in threats, causing many Pride events to cancel or switch online.

One event held by the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition switched to an online modality after receiving a “vulgar death threat.”

But anti-LGBTQ hate and rhetoric have risen for some time, data shows.

Anti-LGBTQ activity, including demonstrations and attacks, increased more than four times from 2020 to 2021, from 15 incidents to 61, according to the global nonprofit conflict-monitoring group ACLED.

As of early June, ACLED counted 33 anti-LGBTQ incidents this year, reports the Washington Post.

With the spike in Anti-LGBTQ sentiment, many state legislators have become less protective of the community, driven mainly by a spate of right-wing hate-mongering.

In 2022, more than 250 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed across the United States this year, with at least 24 bills enacted, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Black Trans women are the most susceptible to Anti-LGBTQ hate and violence.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, says the past year saw record violence against transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

In the most notable recent attack on the community, 31 white nationalists of a group called Patriots Front were arrested on conspiracy charges before their plan to disrupt a pride event in Idaho.

“We are not going to let them win, and we are going to take every precaution to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Jeff Mack, executive vice president of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, an LGBTQ nonprofit group that supports victims of hate crimes.

“We all acknowledge that we just need to be hypervigilant and hyperaware, but we’re not going to let them take away our celebration of who we are.”

This report was first published by The Crime Report.