Newly released data collected from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) show that hate crimes in Texas increased by 6.4 percent from 2021 to 2022, marking the sixth year in a row the state has seen an increase in hate crimes—and setting a new record. The data show that Texas reached a new peak of at least 549 documented hate crimes across the state, with over 56 percent of hate crimes in 2022 targeting LGTBQ+ and Black people.
Hate crimes tracked by DPS are defined as crimes “motivated by prejudice, hatred, or advocacy of violence including, but not limited to, incidents for which statistics are or were kept under the Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act.” An analysis of the DPS hate crime data by the Texas Observer shows that anti-LGTBQ+ hate crimes not only are the most numerous but also occur at a shockingly disproportionate rate. Anti-LGTBQ+ hate crimes occurred at the highest rate of any group, 4.7 times the rate of all hate crimes in the state. Anti-Jewish hate crimes occurred at the second-highest rate, occurring at a rate 3.8 times that of all hate crimes.
“The sharp rise in hate crimes is alarming, but perhaps not surprising given the increase in hateful rhetoric about our LGBTQ+ siblings,” said Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy group. “What is perhaps even more frightening is that these numbers likely undercount the violence. As we’ve seen recently, in the case of Akira Ross, even when the perpetrator hurls a homophobic slur, classification as a hate crime is not a foregone conclusion.”
