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Homophobic Hate Crime up 53% in the West Midlands

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Reported hate crimes against LGBT+ people in the West Midlands rose by more than half in the last year, outstripping the rest of England and Wales.

There were 591 reported incidents of homophobic crimes in 2018 compared to 386 in 2017. In January and February 2019 some 86 crimes were committed—a 26 percent increase on the first two months of the previous year.

The rise is significantly higher than that experienced by England and Wales as a whole, which saw a 27 per cent spike in hate crimes where sexual orientation was a factor in 2017/18. Crimes against transgender people, which are recorded separately, rose by 32 percent.

PC Gary Stack, force lead on sexual orientation hate crime for West Midland Police, put the disparity down to “a closing of the gap between what is happening and what is being reported.”

He told PinkNews: “We’ve done a lot of work over the past few years to encourage people to report crimes, even if they think it’s low level, and we have seen an increase in reports of those lower level public order type offences.

“We absolutely want people to continue to make those reports—even if there’s no known offender or the victim thinks we can’t do anything with it, because it feeds in to our intel picture and helps us to understand what really is going on out there.”

Stonewall has previously suggested that four in five homophobic hate crimes go unreported, with research finding that younger LGBT+ people are especially reluctant to go to the police.

February 2019 one of worst month on record for anti-LGBT+ crime. The data was revealed by a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrats. The figures for the most recent month available—February 2019—was the second worst out of all 26 months in the report.

Natasha Allmark, a campaigner for the Lib Dems, told the Birmingham Mail: “Seeing figures that homophobic crime is at its highest level since 2017 is horrific.

“I worry that with the awful row about Parkfield Community School it could fan the flames of prejudice against the LGBT+ community.”

The West Midlands has played host to a national debate on LGBT-inclusive education following protests at Parkfield.

The primary school had been teaching a programme called No Outsiders, which sought to teach children about inclusion and diversity. After the protests, Parkfield announced that the lessons were to be suspended indefinitely.

Homophobic hate crime has increased in Warwickshire and reports are coming in from all five districts in the county, so LGBT+ hate crime is effecting all communities and not an issue for a specific district or borough. EQuIP are encourging people to come forward to report hate crimes/incidents they experience or witness. There is an option where people can come forward to report on behalf of other people if the victims do not feel confident enough to come forward themsleves. 

Reports related to hate crime/incidents in Warwickshire can be made by reporting online via the www.reporthatenow.com website, email: advice@equipequality.org.uk or if you prefer to talk to someone, please telephone EQuIP: 01788 863117. In an emergency, always call 999, but you can call 101 in a non-emergency situation. 

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Don't be afraid, speak up - silence hides hate

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