Is hate crimes against LGBTQ+ rising?
Executive summary
Multiple independent trackers and research groups report that anti-LGBTQ+ violence and bias-motivated incidents have increased in recent years across the U.S. and parts of Europe; U.S. FBI data and advocacy groups show spikes in 2022–2024 and organizations tracking 2024–2025 document hundreds of incidents (e.g., GLAAD tracked 932 anti‑LGBTQ incidents between May 1, 2024 and May 1, 2025) [1]. Academic and international reports add that LGBTQ people are far more likely than non‑LGBTQ people to be victims of violent crime and that trans and gender‑diverse people face especially high risks, including lethal violence [2] [3].
1. Rising numbers in official and advocacy datasets
The FBI’s recent hate‑crime figures and analyses cited by advocacy groups show that hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity rose from 2022 to 2023, and that for multiple years more than one in five recorded hate crimes in the U.S. were motivated by anti‑LGBTQ+ bias [4] [5]. National trackers and NGOs corroborate upward trends: GLAAD’s ALERT Desk recorded 932 anti‑LGBTQ incidents across 49 states between May 2024 and May 2025, an average of roughly 2.5 incidents per day [1].
2. Disparities by subgroup: trans and people of color most at risk
Scholars at the Williams Institute find LGBTQ people are multiple times more likely than non‑LGBTQ people to suffer violent victimization and violent hate crimes; Black LGBT people had the highest overall victimization rates in their analysis [2]. Trans and gender‑diverse people face especially severe outcomes: Transgender Europe’s monitoring counted 281 reported murders of trans and gender‑diverse people worldwide from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025, underscoring lethal risks documented by human‑rights monitors [3].
3. Different measures, different stories — undercounting is pervasive
Researchers and reporting organizations warn that official figures understate the true scale because hate‑crime reporting is inconsistent and underutilized. GLAAD notes gaps in reporting, and the Williams Institute and other commentators observe victims often do not report to police; federal survey changes can further obscure gender‑identity data [1] [2]. Security.org similarly stresses that we “really don’t know the full scope” due to underreporting and inconsistent collection [6].
4. Geographic and temporal patterns: not uniform but widespread
Multiple sources show the rise is not limited to one country: ISD’s investigation and related reporting describe increases across the U.S., U.K., and Europe since 2020, with heightened threats around school boards and public debates [7] [8]. ILGA‑Europe’s 2025 review and other regional alerts likewise describe a “clear increase in hate and violence” in Europe and Central Asia tied to political rhetoric and legislation [9].
5. Who is tracking what — advocacy nuance and potential agendas
Advocacy groups (GLAAD, HRC, ILGA‑Europe, Transgender Europe) and academic centers (Williams Institute) document increases and press for policy responses; their missions focus on protection and redress, which drives emphasis on trends and harms [1] [5] [9] [2]. Independent data syntheses (USAFacts, ISD, Security.org) combine official FBI numbers and NGO monitoring to contextualize trends and note data limits [10] [7] [6]. Users should note that NGOs prioritize documenting incidents that might be missed by official channels; that orientation shapes what gets counted and highlighted [1] [7].
6. Scale and direction: what we can state with confidence
Available sources consistently report increases in at least some measures and years: FBI‑reported anti‑LGBTQ bias incidents rose into 2023 (and formed an outsized share of hate crimes), NGO trackers documented hundreds of incidents in 2024–2025, and international monitors report rising lethal violence against trans people [5] [1] [3]. At the same time, sources explicitly warn that inconsistent hate‑crime laws, underreporting, and changing data collection practices limit precise measurement of the trend’s magnitude [1] [2] [6].
7. What this means for policy and public understanding
The convergence of FBI data, academic studies, and NGO monitoring indicates an urgent need for better data collection (including consistent gender‑identity categories), improved reporting pathways for victims, and targeted protections for groups at highest risk — especially trans people and LGBT people of color [2] [1] [7]. Advocacy organizations frame these data as a call to action to reverse rhetoric and laws that correlate with spikes in incidents [9] [5].
Limitations: available sources do not present a single unified time‑series that quantifies global or long‑term percent increases across every year; instead, they combine official FBI snapshots, NGO incident tracking, and academic analyses, each with different methodologies and known undercounting problems [1] [6] [2].