FBI report shows rise in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ community

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- A new FBI crime report shows the number of hate crimes targeting the LGBTQ+ community increased in 2023.

In its annual Crime in the Nation report, released Monday, the FBI recorded 2,402 incidents last year related to sexual orientation. That number is up from 1,947 incidents in 2022.

The FBI report also revealed a 3% drop in violent crime, as gender identity-based incidents rose from 307 offenses in 2021, to 515 in 2022 and 547 in 2023.

"Today's abysmal FBI report highlights that it is still dangerous to be LGBTQ+ in this country," said Brian Bond, chief executive officer of LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG National.

"Our LGBTQ+ loved ones need both our compassion and our action to make our communities safe and our laws inclusive, so every LGBTQ+ person can be safe, celebrated, affirmed and loved everywhere in the U.S," Bond added.

The report shows that more than one in five hate crimes last year, and the year before, was motivated by bias against the LGBTQ community.

While race and ethnicity accounted for more than half of all hate crimes last year, besides religion, sexual orientation and gender identity ranked as the third and fourth most common biases that led to hate crimes in 2023.

"This trend needs to end," said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ civil rights organization. "It's time we build an America where LGBTQ+ folks don't just survive, they thrive -- in every town, every state, every corner of this nation. That's not just a dream, it's our fundamental right as Americans."

"Every lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer person in this country should be free to live their lives without fear that we'll be the target of a violent incident purely because of who we are and who we love," Robinson added.

For the first time in its 40-year history, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ in the United States after 530 anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in state legislatures this year, according to the ACLU. Most of them failed to become law.