The LGBTQ community in Europe and central Asia has faced increasingly violent and deadly planned attacks in 2022, according to a flagship report.
(Bloomberg) — The LGBTQ community in Europe and central Asia has faced increasingly violent and deadly planned attacks in 2022, according to a flagship report.
LGBTQ people have seen targeted attacks amid rising and widespread hate speech from politicians, religious leaders, right-wing organizations and media pundits, the Brussels-based ILGA-Europe found in its 12th annual review published Monday.
“Hate speech in all its forms translates into actual physical violence,” ILGA-Europe’s Executive Director Evelyne Paradis said in the report. “This phenomenon is not only in countries where hate speech is rife, but also in countries where it is widely believed that LGBTI people are progressively accepted,” she said.
ILGA-Europe is an independent, international non-governmental umbrella organization that unites over 600 organizations from 54 countries across Europe and central Asia.
Direct and deliberate attacks against the LGBTQ community in the region rose to an unprecedented level in 2022, according to the report. This included terror attacks outside bars in Norway and Slovakia, which led to the combined deaths of 4 people and left 22 injured.
There was also a rise in hate speech from politicians and state representatives to religious leaders. In some countries, such as Austria and France, hate speech peaked around pride events while there was a growing trend of anti-LGBTQ rallies organized on the same day.
In Serbia, during the EuroPride march, the police pushed back groups of counter-demonstrators who waved crosses and religious insignia while in Turkey, the anti-LGBTQ Great Family March was held in Istanbul with the slogan “Save your family and your generation, say no to perversion,” the report said.
“Our leaders need to find ways to proactively fight the rise of hate speech, rather than finding themselves in the position of reacting to its consequences,” Paradis said.
Positive Trends
Despite the grim findings of the 2023 review, there were more positive trends including the lifting of the prohibition on men who have sex with men from donating blood in countries such as Cyprus, Ireland and Lithuania.
Greece also joined a handful of states that have adopted a ban on non-vital medical interventions on children, including banning intersex genital mutilation and, along with France, outlawed so-called conversion practices.
Read Next: Where Change Is Coming for LGBTQ Rights Around the World
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.