After coming out last year, any concerns I had facing insecurities about how people would react to my identity were quickly quashed by the phrase, “the world is becoming a better place,” I found truth and comfort in this statement, however, unfortunately it feels to me now as though this is not entirely true. I am 17 and I have already been met with abuse when men shouted at me and my partner for just holding hands outside of our school.
Watching the news over the past few weeks, there has been no shortage of stories as the UK has seen a rise in the number of homophobic attacks. Although the chance of being physically abused has been minimised as a result of lockdown, in June of this year many LGBTQ+ persons were warned on social media about “operation prideful,” an attack organised by far right groups such as 4chan, planning to target LGBTQ+ influencers. They also tried to push the narrative that the LGBTQ+ community aligns themselves with paedophiles, in an attempt to discredit the movement. To do this they created the term MAP (minor attracted persons) using a flag to further perpetuate the hatred. I witnessed all this during a month that I was supposed to celebrate my first pride. This all showed me how social media was being used to aid hate crimes against my community.
I think it important not to underestimate the effect that lockdown has had on aiding the rise of hate crimes. Countries went into lockdown like dominoes. I believe that being in lockdown for months created polarised groups in social media bubbles fed with a daily diet of like minded beliefs and opinions without opposing views and ideas to challenge these hate filled doctrines. This primary social media element played a key role in normalising this hate filled agenda. Social media is able to create echo chambers, these echo chambers can normalise radical opinions through its distorted ability to make you feel as though everyone thinks and acts like you. These can range from groups of people who love to watch birds to groups of white-supremacists. So if you ask me the rise in hate crimes will only get worse in lockdown as it continues to support the polarisation of groups with their manifesto of hate.
To investigate this further I decided to visit the reddit pages of “ukipparty” and far right group “4chan.”
After visiting r/UKIPpartys page once this is what began to happen, I started getting notifications. This particular notification was trying to push its Islamophobic agenda.
The reddit threads from 4chan and UKIP were filled with anti LGBTQ+ and anti-multiculturalism propaganda, that was certainly not being hidden. These screenshots below further evidence the use of social media to propagate their negative narrative.
4chan was suspended, however all their posts were still accessible.
Unfortunately this normality of hate as a direct result of the use of social media appears to have been translated to the number of hate crimes reported between 2014–2019. This is where hate crimes based on sexual orientation across England and Wales rose by 160%. This is a deeply concerning and alarming statistic, however I wondered if this was because more people felt that they were able to report it now as opposed to the past. I discovered that this was only a fraction of the truth. Because although the number of attacks has been rising the percentage of prosecutions has dropped from 20% of all reported cases to 8%. This doesn’t encourage people to report these crimes because of the low number of prosecutions. Furthermore the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall said 81% of people who experienced LGBTQ+ hate crime did not even report it to the police.
To entirely blame social media doesn’t account for the complexities of bias and prejudice. I also feel it is important to acknowledge the impact that populist politics has had in the normalising hate and the consequences of this. The current prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson was able to attain his position even after referring to a gay men as “tank-topped bum boys,” as well as comparing gay marriage to bestiality his words were “If gay marriage was OK — and I was uncertain on the issue — then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.” In 2019 he defended this comments saying “I defend my right to speak out.” The prime minister should be held to higher standards and his bigoted comments are used to propel and normalise hate. I feel slowly we are seeing the Overton window shift further and further right, a move that has been aided by both the rise in social media and populist politics but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
COVID-19 has been so overwhelming, with what feels like a constant stream of bad news. It could be easy to neglect these issues, as it can appear that we have far more pressing concerns at this time. There is no doubt in my mind that this pandemic has played a pivotal role in the rise in homophobic hate crimes. I urge you to speak up on issues, as stated by John Stuart Mill “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
Unfortunately this normality of hate as a direct result of the use of social media appears to have been translated to the number of hate crimes reported between 2014–2019. This is where hate crimes based on sexual orientation across England and Wales rose by 160%. This is a deeply concerning and alarming statistic, however I wondered if this was because more people felt that they were able to report it now as opposed to the past. I discovered that this was only a fraction of the truth. Because although the number of attacks has been rising the percentage of prosecutions has dropped from 20% of all reported cases to 8%. This doesn’t encourage people to report these crimes because of the low number of prosecutions. Furthermore the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall said 81% of people who experienced LGBTQ+ hate crime did not even report it to the police.
To entirely blame social media doesn’t account for the complexities of bias and prejudice. I also feel it is important to acknowledge the impact that populist politics has had in the normalising hate and the consequences of this. The current prime minister of the UK, Boris Johnson was able to attain his position even after referring to a gay men as “tank-topped bum boys,” as well as comparing gay marriage to bestiality his words were “If gay marriage was OK — and I was uncertain on the issue — then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.” In 2019 he defended this comments saying “I defend my right to speak out.” The prime minister should be held to higher standards and his bigoted comments are used to propel and normalise hate. I feel slowly we are seeing the Overton window shift further and further right, a move that has been aided by both the rise in social media and populist politics but this is by no means an exhaustive list.
COVID-19 has been so overwhelming, with what feels like a constant stream of bad news. It could be easy to neglect these issues, as it can appear that we have far more pressing concerns at this time. There is no doubt in my mind that this pandemic has played a pivotal role in the rise in homophobic hate crimes. I urge you to speak up on issues, as stated by John Stuart Mill “Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends than that good men should look on and do nothing.”
