carrying the coffin of their murdered friend, August 1987. Even in countries where homosexuality is legal (most countries outside of Africa and the Middle East), there are reports of homosexual people being targeted with bullying or physical assault or even homicide. According to the
Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB), Brazil's oldest gay rights NGO, the rate of murders of homosexuals in
Brazil is particularly high, with a reported 3,196 cases over the 30-year period of 1980 to 2009 (or about 0.7 cases per 100,000 population per annum). At least 387 LGBT Brazilians were murdered in 2017. GGB reported 190 documented alleged homophobic murders in Brazil in 2008, accounting for about 0.5% of intentional homicides in Brazil (
homicide rate 22 per 100,000 population as of 2008). 64% of the victims were gay men, 32% were
trans women or transvestites, and 4% were lesbians. By comparison, the FBI reported five homophobic murders in the
United States during 2008, corresponding to 0.03% of intentional homicides (homicide rate 5.4 per 100,000 population as of 2008). The numbers produced by the Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB) have occasionally been contested on the grounds that they include all murders of LGBT people reported in the media – that is, not only those motivated by bias against homosexuals. Reinaldo de Azevedo, in 2009, columnist of the right-wing
Veja magazine, Brazil's most read weekly publication, called the GGB's methodology "unscientific" based on the above objection: that they make no distinction between murders motivated by bias and those that were not. On the high level of murders of transsexuals, he suggested transsexuals' allegedly high involvement with the drug trade may expose them to higher levels of violence as compared to non-transgender homosexuals and heterosexuals. In many parts of the world, including much of the European Union and
United States, acts of violence are legally classified as hate crimes, which entail harsher sentences if convicted. In some countries, this form of legislation extends to
verbal abuse as well as physical violence. Violent hate crimes against LGBT people tend to be especially brutal, even compared to other hate crimes: "an intense rage is present in nearly all homicide cases involving gay male victims". It is rare for a victim to just be shot; he is more likely to be stabbed multiple times, mutilated, and strangled. "They frequently involved
torture, cutting, mutilation... showing the absolute intent to rub out the human being because of his (sexual) preference". In the same year in the United States, according to
Federal Bureau of Investigation data, though 4,704 crimes were committed due to racial bias and 1,617 were committed due to sexual orientation, only one murder and one
forcible rape were committed due to racial bias, whereas five murders and six rapes were committed based on sexual orientation. In
Northern Ireland in 2008, 160
homophobic incidents and 7
transphobic incidents were reported. Of those incidents, 68.4% were violent crimes; significantly higher than for any other bias category. By contrast, 37.4% of racially motivated crimes were of a violent nature. Recent research on university-level students indicated the importance of queer visibility and its impact in creating a positive experience for LGBTIQ+ members of a campus community, this can reduce the impact and effect of incidents on youth attending university. When there is a poor climate – students are much less likely to report incidents or seek help.
Violence at universities In the United States since the early 2010s, colleges and universities have taken major steps to prevent sexual harassment from taking place on campus, but students have still reported violence due to their sexual orientation. Sexual harassment can include "non-contact forms" such as making jokes or comments and "contact forms" like forcing students to commit sexual acts. Most students who commit sexual violence towards other students do it to boost their own ego, believing that their actions are humorous. More than 46% of sexual harassment towards LGBT people still goes unreported.
Australia Following a
spate of murders of gay men in the 1980s and 1990s, significant advances have been made.
Hate speech laws in Australia provide protection in all states against racial vilification, with some additional protections on the grounds of sexual orientation in New South Wales, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania. In
New South Wales, 'homosexual vilification' is prohibited under the umbrella of the
Anti-Discrimination Act 1977. In 2011, the
Australian Human Rights Commission had reported that there was no federal law protecting LGBT+ Australians from discrimination or vilification. However, with the legalisation of
same-sex marriage in Australia in 2017, and sexual orientation anti-discrimination protections in all states,
LGBT rights in Australia are now among the most progressive in the world.
Scotland In 2009, Scotland passed the
Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice (Scotland) Act, which made acts of prejudice against Disability, Sexual Orientation and Transgender Status specific offences. This Act requires only a single source of evidence, and those convicted under it must be told upon sentencing both what their sentence will be and what it would have been had prejudice not been a factor. In July 2017, James Chalmers and Fiona Leverick of the
University of Glasgow, submitted their report
A Comparative Analysis of Hate Crime Legislation to the Hate Crime Legislation Review which contributed to the Scottish government's publication of its final report
Independent review of hate crime legislation in Scotland in May 2018. While homophobia is still an issue in modern Scotland, particularly in schools, social attitudes towards LGBT+ persons have changed significantly, helped by every Scottish political party leader being vocally in support of
equal marriage throughout that campaign. Former leaders of both Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives have been "out" lesbians and current co-leader of the Scottish Greens,
Patrick Harvie is openly gay. In the UK Parliament, as of March 2023, Westminster MP for
Livingstone, West Lothian,
Hannah Bardell was one of 62 "out"
LGBT politicians in the United Kingdom.
USA The
United States does not have federal legislation marking sexual orientation as criterion for hate crimes, but several states, including the District of Columbia, enforce harsher penalties for crimes where real or perceived sexual orientation may have been a motivator. Among these 12 countries as well, only the United States has criminal law that specifically mentions gender identity, and even then only in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The resolution specifically mentions a large number of groups, including race, religion, linguistic differences, refugees,
street children and
indigenous peoples. Legal and police response to these types of hate crimes is hard to gauge, however. Lack of reporting by authorities on the statistics of these crimes and under-reporting by the victims themselves are factors for this difficulty.
Alleged judicative bias The
Gay Panic Defense has at times been adduced to plea for more lenient punishments for people accused of assaulting or killing homosexuals because of their actual or perceived orientation. This defense posits that the attacker was so enraged by their victim's alleged advances as to cause
temporary insanity, rendering them unable to stop themselves. If the loss of faculties is proven, or sympathized to the jury, a sentence may be mitigated. In several
common law countries, the mitigatory defense of
provocation has been used in violent attacks against LGBT persons, which has led Australian states progressively to abolish the Gay Panic Defense, now effective nationwide. People convicted of violence against LGBT people have in several cases received shorter sentences under the Gay Panic Defense plea: • On September 30, 1997, Kenneth Brewer met Stephen Bright at a local gay bar, where he bought the younger man drinks and they later went back to Brewer's apartment. While there, Brewer made a sexual advance toward Bright, who then beat him to death. Bright was initially charged with
second-degree murder, but he was eventually convicted of third-degree assault and was sentenced to one year in prison. • In 2001,
Aaron Webster was beaten to death by a group of youths armed with baseball bats and a pool cue while in an area of
Stanley Park frequented by gay men. Ryan Cran was convicted of
manslaughter in the case in 2004 and released on parole in 2009 after serving 4 years of his six-year sentence. In 1987, a
Florida judge trying a case concerning the beating to death of a gay man asked the prosecutor, "That's a crime now, to beat up a homosexual?" The prosecutor responded, "Yes, sir. And it's also a crime to kill them." "Times have really changed," the judge replied. The judge, Daniel Futch, maintained that he was joking, but was removed from the case. Russia's officials are similarly averse to
Pride Parades.
Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov has repeatedly banned marches, calling them "
satanic". Pride participants instead tried to peacefully assemble and deliver a petition to city hall regarding the
right of assembly and
freedom of expression. They were met by
skinheads and other protesters, and police who had closed off the square and immediately arrested activists as they entered. As some were being arrested, other participants were attacked by protesters. Police did nothing. Around eleven women and two men were arrested and left in the heat, denied medical attention, and verbally abused by police officers. The officers told the women, "No one needs lesbians, no one will ever get you out of here." When participants were released from custody hours later, they were pelted by eggs and shouted at by protesters who had been waiting.
Hungary, on the other hand, has tried to afford the best protection they can to marchers, but cannot stem the flow of violence. In 2008, hundreds of people participated in the
Budapest Dignity March. Police, on alert due to attacks on two LGBT-affiliated businesses earlier in the week, erected high metal barriers on either side of the street the march was to take place on. Hundreds of angry protesters threw petrol bombs and rocks at police in retaliation. A police van was set on fire and two police officers were injured in the attacks. During the parade itself, protesters threw
Molotov cocktails, eggs and firecrackers at marchers. At least eight participants were injured. Forty-five people were detained in connection with the attacks, and observers called the incident "the worst violence during the dozen years the Gay Pride Parade has taken place in Budapest". In Israel, three marchers in a
gay pride parade in Jerusalem on June 30, 2005, were stabbed by
Yishai Shlisel, a
Haredi Jew. Shlisel claimed he had acted "in the name of God". He was charged with attempted murder. Ten years later, On July 30, 2015,
six marchers were injured, again by Yishai Shlisel when he stabbed them. It was three weeks after he was released from jail. One of the victims, 16-year-old Shira Banki, died of her wounds at the
Hadassah Medical Center three days later, on August 2, 2015. Shortly after, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered his condolences, adding "We will deal with the murderer to the fullest extent of the law." In 2019, the gay pride parade in Detroit was infiltrated by armed
neo-nazis who reportedly claimed they wanted to spark "Charlottesville 2.0" referring to the
Unite the Right demonstration in 2017 which resulted in the murder of
Heather Heyer, and many others injured. 2019 march holding up Solidarity sign with Poland, following
Białystok attack On July 20, 2019, the first
Białystok equality march was held in
Białystok, a
Law and Justice party stronghold, surrounded by Białystok county which is a declared
LGBT-free zone. Wojda also asserted that the march was "foreign" and thanked those who "defend Christian values". Dozens of marchers were injured. According to the
New York Times, similar to the manner in which the
Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville shocked Americans, the violence in Białystok raised public concern in Poland over anti-LGBT propaganda. A 2023 report by
Human Rights Watch documents the widespread use of fake profiles on digital platforms by police to entrap, extort money from, or physically torture LGBTQ people in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia.
Advocacy in song lyrics , a Jamaican musician, performing in 2007 As a result of the strong anti-homosexual culture in
Jamaica, many
reggae and
dancehall artists, such as
Buju Banton,
Elephant Man,
Sizzla, have published song lyrics advocating violence against homosexuals. Similarly,
hip-hop music occasionally includes aggressively homophobic lyrics, but has since appeared to reform. Banton wrote a song when he was 15 years old that became a hit when he released it years later in 1992 called "Boom Bye Bye". The song is about murdering homosexuals and "advocated the shooting of gay men, pouring acid on them and burning them alive." Gay rights advocates have started the group
Stop Murder Music to combat what they say is the promotion of hate and violence by artists. The group organized protests, causing some venues to refuse to allow the targeted artists to perform, and the loss of sponsors. In 2007, the group asked reggae artists to promise "not to produce music or make public statements inciting hatred against gay people. Neither can they authorise the re-release of previous homophobic songs." Several artists signed that agreement, including Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Sizzla and
Capleton, During the 1980s, skinheads in North America who promoted emerging neo-Nazi pop culture and
racist rock songs increasingly went to punk rock concerts with anti-gay music advocating violence. ==Motivations==