There have been some dramatic changes happening around the world recently. Donald Trump becoming president, the results of the Brexit vote and fallouts of both have caused some instability around the world, even in our local community. These controversial events have almost caused a rewind in the progress made over the last century. Views of people like Donald Trump have made society believe that it is acceptable to be discriminatory and prejudiced towards people. Even in Merton, incidents of homophobic hate crimes have increased by nearly 21% in Merton during 2016.
The Metropolitan Police revealed a 20.8% year-on-year increase in Merton with only 24 homophobic hate crimes reported in 2015, rising to 29 reported in Merton in 2016. However, the severity of the problem may even be more than it first seems because the government estimates that 1 in 5 in the LGBTQ community have experienced a hate crime in the last three years. The reason the statistics are so low is because the majority of homophobic hate crime victims do not report their experiences to the police. The Merton and Wandsworth Labour Assembly Member, Leonie Cooper also said: “There is overwhelming evidence that hate crimes, particularly those committed against the LGBT+ community, are woefully under-reported”.
Many people believe that the raise in homophobia is related to the popularity of Donald Trump and his extreme views becoming more accepted within society. A spokesman for the Washington-based Council told the Independent that “This rhetoric is nothing new, what is new is how far he has gone with it. That is the shocking thing” - hence the increase. So, as an attempt to combat the bigoted behaviour, Sadiq Khan has announced plans to launch an online hate crime centre as well as introduce Hate Crime Victims’ Advocates across London with hope that this will bring back a once tolerant London and Merton.
Sources: http://www.wimbledonsw19.com/default.asp?section=info&page=homophobichatecrimeinmerton001.htm
