U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (Screen capture)
Violent threats against the LGBTQ+ community are rising and intensifying according to data from a document by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that was shared with law enforcement and government agencies on May 11.
“These issues include actions linked to drag-themed events, gender-affirming care, and LGBTQIA+ curricula in schools,” the agency said.
DHS also warned of the potential that these threats may lead to a rise in attacks against LGBTQ+ public spaces and healthcare sites, just as Pride celebrations across the country are slated to begin in June.
According to the agency, data from the FBI’s hate crime statistics indicates that 20 percent of those committed in 2021 were motivated by bias linked to sexual orientation and gender.
The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law reported in 2022 that “LGBT people [are] nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent hate crimes.”
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a group that describes itself as “a disaggregated data collection, analysis, and crisis mapping project,” found that anti-LGBTQ+ incidents including “demonstrations, acts of political violence, and the distribution of offline propaganda — have more than tripled from 64 events in 2021 to 193 events in 2022 as of mid-November.”
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