Campaigners say little has changed since a summer of violence rocked Liverpool's LGBT+ community.
Hundreds of people flooded the city centre after a series of attacks left gay, bisexual and transgender people bloody and bruised last year. Politicians condemned the violence and police pledged to increase patrols in hotspots around the city's nightlife.
Although the number of anti-LGBT+ hate crimes reported to Merseyside Police has fallen from a record high of 466 last summer, they've stayed at a level much higher than previously seen in Merseyside, according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The data, covering up to March 2022, shows reports haven't fallen below 100 per month since April 2021, with much of this driven by reported cases of physical assault, verbal abuse and incitement to hatred in Liverpool.
READ MORE: Thug shouts homophobic abuse at schoolboy then batters him
Walton MP Dan Carden, who is gay, said "our city is famous for its diverse, vibrant and welcoming culture. Those who bring bigotry and violence onto our streets do not represent us". He added: "The spate of homophobic attacks during Pride Month last year was a horrifying reminder that, despite all the progress made on LGBT+ rights and equality, we still have much further to go."
Among the high profile cases last summer was a man who feared for his life while being attacked outside Tesco on Bold Street by a group of men calling him homophobic slurs. Hours after the attack in July 2021, he told the ECHO it made him think: "If this is what being gay means, then I don't want to be gay."
Curtis Stewart, a bisexual man then aged 19, was left with two black eyes and a face fracture after a man punched and headbutted him on Lord Nelson Street, moments after making sure his sister and her friend got back to their hotel safely. The previous month, a young woman, her girlfriend and her sister were attacked and threatened with rape and murder in 'gay town'. And a gay couple and their friend were later attacked with a knife and homophobic slurs.
In the wake of this violence, the community rallied to show solidarity and defiance by marching through the streets of Liverpool with banners declaring their "queer love cannot be taken". For a moment, victims and activists felt hope that things would get better as organisations were pushed into action.
LCR Pride, in partnership with Merseyside's Police and Crime Commissioner, launched the 'You're Safe Here' scheme, which trained more than 60 businesses in Merseyside, totalling nearly 400 staff members, to deal with hate crimes more effectively. One such venue is Fly in the Loaf, a pub on Hardman Street with a badge identifying it as a certified safe space. General manager, Alan Millington, said his staff took part because "we've all got a role to play" in ensuring the LGBTQ+ community feels safe.
He said: "We all love our city and want everyone to be safe, so seeing the news last summer made us even more determined to understand the needs of our customers, whoever they are, and do our bit to help. The training helped us to make little changes that could make our customers feel more comfortable, like using inclusive language when serving customers or during our quiz nights."
Another pilot scheme, run by RASA Merseyside, saw volunteers ensure partygoers made it home safe after nights out. Its teams helped those in need in the city centre every Friday and Saturday for a month by recharging their phones or helping them get in touch with parents and flatmates.
Despite the show of support for the city's LGBT+ community, local activists feel the situation has not got better. Paul McGowan, the co-founder of Reclaim Pride Liverpool and a speaker at last year's protest, pointed to the attacks on trans people by politicians and elements of the media, and the closure of the Armistead Centre, Liverpool's specialist sexual health clinic for LGBT+ people.
Paul, who is non-binary and is chair of LGBT+ Socialists, said: "Most of the positives are coming from the community, working together to big up one another, rather than waiting around for anyone to do anything for us. From Stonewall onwards, it's always been an uphill struggle, and we've always had to be a radical community to get our basic human rights."
Some in the community called on Merseyside Police to do more, with a petition demanding more officers in Liverpool city centre gaining nearly 5,000 signatures in just three days. The force said it stepped up patrols following the attacks, with a 24-hour police presence maintained in the city centre and a mobile station installed by Mathew Street near the Pride Quarter.
Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner, Emily Spurrell, said: "When I speak to people, the vast majority of the public say to me that they want a visible police presence, particularly in areas where they might feel vulnerable, like the city centre, at night. So seeing those increased officers moving around I think is very positive, and it gives people somewhere to go if they need a conversation or they've been feeling vulnerable.
"We have proactively recruited an additional 665 officers now. We recruited above what the government targets were because we knew we wanted to get as many police officers back onto the streets as possible. And so I'm really pleased that the police have been prioritising areas like the city centre at night to get those patrols out there.”
Andrew Gilman, a manager of Heaven on Victoria Street, agreed, adding: "The bigger police presence in the right areas has been making people feel safer walking home, or quicker response when something has actually happened, the mobile station they have by Mathew Street has been a saviour for our kick-offs and solving issues."
However, Paul warned against relying on the police to solve problems affecting the LGBT+ community and other marginalised communities. Only one in eight LGBT+ people reported the most recent hate incident they’d experienced to police, and fewer than half of those who did report their experience were satisfied with the response, according to LGBT+ rights charity Stonewall.
Instances of anti-LGBT+ hate aren't isolated to Liverpool. Last year, Dr Gary Jenkins was murdered in Cardiff in a homophobic attack by three people, including one from Liverpool. Meanwhile, a man is on trial for the murders of two gay men in Ireland, which has experienced its own summer of violence this year.
This includes an anti-LGBT+ attack in Dublin city centre during Pride celebrations last month, which hospitalised three people, one of whom - a 19-year-old trans man - suffered a "fractured skull and abnormalities in the brain", Dublin Live reports. Further afield, LGBT+ rights are also under assault, with US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas suggesting a repeal of same-sex marriage protections after the constitutional right to abortion was overturned in the country.
Ultimately, protests and more police won't solve the issues of violence, hatred and discrimination affecting LGBT+ people here and abroad. Mr Carden said: "We need structural change to secure the rights and safety of LGBT+ people, who, across the UK, are still faced with abuse or violence, bullying in schools and workplaces, and unequal access to vital services.
"The institutions that should protect us too often stand silent, or actively harm us. Increased poverty, swingeing cuts to youth services, and a culture of politicians scapegoating minorities for all of society's ills have created the conditions for rising levels of hate crime.
"The Government is backtracking on LGBT+ rights, delaying the long-promised ban on conversion therapy and excluding trans people. LGBT+ people are being treated as cannon fodder in the Conservatives' culture war. LGBT+ people don't want special treatment, just fair treatment.
"It is more important than ever for our community to stick together during the Pride celebrations later this month. Together we must make sure that hard-won progress isn't rolled back, and strengthen our resolve to fight homophobia and prejudice at every level in our society.
Paul added: "The attacks going on, you get it every couple years where there'll either be a summer of attacks on Muslims, there'll be a summer of attacking people on benefits, there'll be a summer of attacking LGBT+ people. And that goes on and on and on, and it's never going to end until we can hold people to account, and people on the streets organise together to stand in solidarity with one another when one's being attacked, because an attack to one of us is essentially an attack to all."
READ NEXT
