Things seem to be going from bad to worse for hate crimes in the U.K. 

This year has not been great for the LGBTQ+ community in some parts of the U.K.  From a spate of attacks and hate crimes in Liverpool, defacing of queer street art in Manchester, attacks in Hertfordshire and Edinburgh, to just this weekend a report of two teenage girls being attacked in Hitchin – in a year where it seems like the community is more comfortably visible than ever, so too are the crimes against us. 

Two men in their thirties were attacked this weekend in a homophobic attack in Birmingham’s Gay Village.

According to police, the two men were outside Bromsgrove Street’s Missing Bar at 4am when a group of men shouted homophobic abuse at them.

One of the victims had his phone stolen by the group – who were in a black SUV – and when his friend tried to recover the handset, by leaning through the car’s window, he was dragged along by the vehicle.

At this point, police said, the group got out of the vehicle and attacked the two men with bottles, leaving them bloody and badly swollen.

Police officials said: “One of the victims received lacerations to his head and hands, while the second was knocked unconscious and suffered cuts to his head and arm”.

Homophobic and transphobic hate crimes more than doubled in England and Wales between 2015 and 2018.

Across the four year period the rate of LGBT+ hate crime , which includes offences such as harassment, assault and stalking, has increased by 144 per cent.