LGBTQIA+ hate crimes have increased more than any other crime in Lincoln in the past year

Recent statistics from the Gov.uk website show that 21 per cent of LGBT people living in Lincoln have experienced an incident or hate crime regarding their sexual and gender identity in the last 12 months making it the fastest growing crime in the city. As well as this, 81 per cent of these people say they did not or would not report an incident they experienced to the police, meaning the issues are drastically underreported.

There has also been a 22 per cent rise in sexual identity-based hate crimes in the whole of England and Wales from 2017 to 2021/2022.

With these identities becoming more widely accepted in mainstream media and held to a high priority within law, the statistics presented by the government show a concerning increase in how people in England and Wales respond to the ever-changing government policies.

We asked some University of Lincoln students within the Trans and Non-Binary Society about their experiences with issues regarding hate crime against their sexual identity or gender expression and how comfortable they feel expressing their identities within Lincoln.

Katie (She/Her)

Katie is a first year student studying law at the University of Lincoln. She opened up about her personal encounters with discrimination as a transgender woman and said: “The verbal abuse is frequent. My friends were laughed at for hanging out with a transgender person. Now when I go out with friends at night I dress masculine because I don’t feel comfortable enough to be myself.”

Katie (She/Her)

Oakleigh (They/She)

Oakleigh is another student studying in Lincoln with their own personal experiences of non-violent abuse as a transfeminine person. They have been living in Lincoln on and off for a few years and said: “I was walking past Lincoln College, and there was a group of guys in a car. They were making sexual ‘gay’ remarks at me because I was wearing colourful clothing. I’m still not 100% comfortable wearing the skirts and things that I want to as a trans person that doesn’t ‘pass’. However, wearing colourful one pieces does give me euphoria.”

She also expressed that outside of the city she has received similar abuse. They added: “Outside of Lincoln (Boston), I’ve been forcefully tripped over whilst crossing the road when I was with my now ex-partner. I also used to work in the McDonalds there and homophobic slurs against me instigated a fight that ended up on the news.”

Oakleigh (They/She)

Although these statistics show the negative side of how LGBT individuals are treated, there are many safe spaces for individuals to explore their expression and to be allies for those around them. Some of these include societies such as the Pride Society and the Trans and Non-Binary Society, which are available for all students at the University of Lincoln to join.

At the University of Lincoln, there are many ways to get help for hate crimes and students are highly encouraged to seek support if they are experiencing abuse. If you feel you need support or guidance on anything spoken about in this article here are some useful links:

https://studentservices.lincoln.ac.uk/respect/lgbtq/

https://lincolnsu.com/campaigns-network/lgbt

https://mindout.org.uk/

https://galop.org.uk/

https://www.kaleidoscopetrust.com/

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