Alert sounded over transgender hate
ATTACKS: Hateful rhetoric against transgender people has echoes of the homophobia seen 40 years ago and is resulting in people being attacked, the head of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) charity says.
Heather Paterson, CEO of Say It Sheffield, says the language seen used is similar to that seen in the 1980s against gay people.
HATEFUL RHETORIC against transgender people has echoes of the homophobia seen 40 years ago and is even resulting in people being attacked, the head of an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) charity says.
Heather Paterson, CEO of Say It Sheffield, says the language seen used against trans people is similar to that seen in the 1980s against gay and lesbian people.
“In the past few years, there has been a lot of stirring up in the media about transgender people,” she said.
“Trans people are often painted as being sexual predators and people you would not want to be in a changing room with.
“It is the exact same rhetoric that was used against gay people back in the 1980s.
“These are not just words on a page – they are having a detrimental impact.”
She added that, as a gay woman, she had experienced “horrific” abuse, but that this was still “out of proportion” with the abuse experienced by her transgender and non-binary friends.
She said: “Many of them do not even want to leave their own houses.
“If we are going out, they don’t want to be out for too long because of the grief they get using public toilets.”
It comes as figures from one police force in Yorkshire reveal it has seen nearly a 1,000 per cent increase in hate crimes against transgender people in five years.
West Yorkshire Police revealed it had recorded 191 hate crimes categorised as transphobic in the year ending March 2020, compared with 18 in the same period between 2014 and 2015.
Figures from Humberside, meanwhile, show 46 such crimes in 2019-20, while in North Yorkshire there were 16.
Although no recent data currently exists publicly from South Yorkshire Police, the force has revealed there were 60 transphobic hate crimes reported between 2017 and 2018.
Figures from the Crown Prosecution Service, however, revealed that in the Yorkshire & the Humber region there were only six cases charged in the year ending March 2020.
And data from the Office of National Statistics last month showed transgender people were twice as likely (28 per cent) to have been a crime victim in this same period.
Ms Paterson says such reports may be the tip of the iceberg: “I would say the vast majority goes unreported,” she said.
West Yorkshire Police said it was aware such crimes were under-reported nationally, and it took hate crimes against the LGBT community seriously.
A spokeswoman said: “We continue to work with key individuals within the transgender community to break down barriers and encourage reporting whether directly to West Yorkshire Police or via a third party reporting centre for example.”
It is the exact same rhetoric used against gay people in the 1980s. Heather Paterson, CEO of LGBT charity Say It Sheffield.