Combating rising hate against LGBTI people in Europe

The UK gets a specific mention in the report, which is worth reading in full.

(52) In the United Kingdom, anti-trans rhetoric, arguing that sex is immutable and gender identities not valid, has also been gaining baseless and concerning credibility, at the expense of both trans people’s civil liberties and women’s and children’s rights. At the IDAHOT Forum 2021, the Minister for Equalities stated, in contradiction with international human rights standards with respect to the rights of trans people, “We do not believe in self-identification”. Such rhetoric – which denies trans identities – is being used to roll back the rights of trans and non-binary people and is contributing to growing human rights problems. UK hate crime statistics show a sharp increase in transphobic crimes since 2015 – though only 1 in 7 victims report them to an authority. Online abuse is also rising, and many trans people fear for their safety.⁵⁵ There is intense and ongoing social, political and legal debate about what constitutes harmful discourse when it comes to trans people and their rights, and arguments defending freedom of expression have been – and are still being – used as a tool to justify transphobic rhetoric, further penalising and harming already marginalised trans people and communities. It is also becoming increasingly difficult for individuals and organisations to publicly affirm young trans people without being subject to hostility and disproportionate questioning from wider society. The ‘gender-critical’ movement, which wrongly portrays trans rights as posing a particular threat to cisgender women and girls, has played a significant role in this process, notably since the 2018 public consultation on updating the Gender Recognition Act 2004 for England and Wales. In parallel, trans rights organisations have faced vitriolic media campaigns, in which trans women especially are vilified and misrepresented. The gender- critical campaign – which continues to gain momentum, power and financial support – has been instrumental in creating a situation in which legal gender recognition processes still require a clinical diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and remain inaccessible to non-binary people and anyone under 18. There is also a concerning, growing account of parents who (due to difficulties in accessing timely public health care) pursue private health care on behalf of their child, being investigated by State authorities. Trans healthcare is also being erroneously portrayed as a form of LGB conversion therapy.⁵⁶

(53) Such anti-trans narratives, wrongly portraying trans rights as a threat to women and to others’ rights and insisting on binary categorisations of sex and gender that do not correspond to lived realities, are becoming increasingly pervasive in Europe. Effective criminal and anti-discrimination legislation are more crucial than ever in this context. As politicians, we must listen to trans people and their organisations, educate ourselves about their situation and rights, empower them, and urgently re-set the agenda and narratives, so that debates are reframed to correspond to complex realities rather than catchy but simplistic slogans. Trans people have a right to recognition before the law, to protection of their private and family lives, to freedom from discrimination, and to safety and security, as do all people; it is our responsibility to make these rights a reality

55. Bradley C. (2020), Transphobic Hate Crime Report 2020, London, Galop.
56. Lui Asquith, Mermaids, United Kingdom, committee hearing, 18 May 2021