Homophobia and Discrimination on

Several factors may contribute to this:
For some victims, the social stigma <strong>and</strong> prejudice against LGBT persons results in a
decision not to identify themselves as LGBT, <strong>and</strong> they avoid reporting so as to reduce
the risk of ‘outing’ or exposing themselves.
Some LGBT persons experience hate incidents so often they do not bother reporting
them. For those reasons, or due to what is labelled ‘internalised homophobia’, some
victims do not recognise hate incidents as crimes or as discrimination, but rather as part
of the social circumstances derived from the popular perception of LGBT persons, <strong>and</strong>
thus as ‘part of life’.
Knowledge of how <strong>and</strong> where to report can be patchy. In most Member States a lack of
police ‘public service’ culture means that there is little effort to inform the public <strong>and</strong>
especially groups vulnerable to hate crime about ways to report hate crime. In this case
those who experience a hate crime due to their sexual orientation or gender identity may
simply not know how <strong>and</strong> to whom to report it.
Others may be reluctant to address the police either because they have previously
experienced homophobia or fear homophobic reactions from police officers. Victims
have reported such reactions from the police as well as unwillingness to file a complaint
or being reluctant to believe in the existence of a homophobic motive for the crime. 92
For example, the LGBT NGOs OLKE in Greece <strong>and</strong> ACCEPT in Romania reported that
police officers intimidate <strong>and</strong> harass individuals in public places known as meeting points
for gay men. 93 In an Estonian study, 25 per cent of LGB respondents reported
experiencing hostile reactions from the police when reporting hate crimes. 94 An example:
'Did you know that for the simple fact of holding h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> kissing your same sex
lover at 11:30 pm in a park you can be spat on, beaten, fined, called "faggot, sissy,
<strong>and</strong> depraved freak", <strong>and</strong> some words I am really ashamed of mentioning, by the
police?' (Male, 17, Romania) 95
The stakeholders’ e-survey had mixed results regarding the efforts of public authorities
to confront hate crime against LGBT persons. Fifty three per cent stated that relevant
public authorities consider hate crimes as a 'fairly relevant' or 'very relevant' area of
92 See e.g. ENAR (2006) Shadow Report: Bulgaria 2006, available at:
http://cms.horus.be/files/99935/MediaArchive/national/Bulgaria_2006.pdf (14 .07.2008)
93 Fieldwork meetings: Greece, 14 April 2008, <strong>and</strong> Romania, 12 April 2008
94 Kotter, L. (2002): "Sexual Orientation <strong>Discrimination</strong> in Estonia" in Sexual Orientation <strong>Discrimination</strong> in
Lithuania, Latvia <strong>and</strong> Estonia. Open Society Institute <strong>and</strong> Kimeta Society.
95 UK Gay News (2006) <strong>Discrimination</strong>: Gays Fined for Cuddling in a Park While Straight Couple Ignored for
Having Sex, available at http://ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006july/2901.htm (07.08.2008).
Part II - The Social Situation
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