Ely Pride, which supports LGBTQ+ people in Cambridgeshire, believes more work on tackling “ignorance, fear and stigma” around marginalised communities is needed.
“There is still a lot of ignorance, fear and stigma; we need to work on improving that and allowing people to see us in a much more fairer light,” Andrew White, a trustee at Ely Pride, said.
Figures show that police recorded nearly 5,000 transphobic hate crime offences last year – while there were just under 23,000 homophobic hate crimes.
And LGBT+ rights charity Stonewall found one in seven LGBTQ+ people (14%) have avoided treatment for fear of discrimination because they’re LGBTQ+.
Andrew said many hate crimes against LGBTQ+ communities still exist.
“Unfortunately there are still many hate crimes and other atrocities committed against our community and we need to work towards combatting those,” he added.
“We also need to reach out to those who are coming to terms with their own sexuality.
“We are now more prevalent in media, books and magazines, but there are still negative portrayals of our people and we need to work together to eliminate those.”
More info on Ely Pride HERE
