Earlier this year, the ABC revealed that Islamic State-inspired attackers were deliberately luring gay and bisexual men and boys through dating apps, violently assaulting them, filming the attacks and posting the footage online. At the same time, far-right influencers in the manosphere were circulating guides on how to carry out homophobic attacks.

These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of an escalation in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people, and they have prompted the Victorian parliament to direct a parliamentary committee to investigate anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes and report back by September 2026.

Hate crimes emerge from different ideological sources, but communities targeted by hate often confront the same institutional failures. The Victorian inquiry provides an opportunity to examine how other targeted communities — and other countries — are responding to hate crimes, and what lessons Australia can draw from them.

The under-reporting problem

Hate crimes against LGBTQ+ people are significantly under-reported to police. This is not surprising. LGBTQ+ communities carry decades of justified distrust toward law enforcement stemming from a legacy of criminalisation, police harassment, perceived hostility and institutional indifference. Those experiences do not simply disappear because the law has changed.

When a person has been attacked because of who they are, the prospect of reliving that experience before an officer who may or may not take it seriously is, for many, simply not viable.

The under-reporting of these crimes, means that victims don’t get the support they need, and we lack the evidence to effectively respond to this scourge. We need data to understand the true nature and scale of the problem, and therefore what solutions are most likely to work. After all, we cannot tackle what we cannot see.

Lessons from an unlikely source

Given that some perpetrators of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes are motivated by extremist interpretations of religion, it may seem counterintuitive to suggest that LGBTQ+ communities look to Muslim communities for guidance on responding to hate crimes. But minority communities are not in competition when it comes to confronting hate.

The Islamophobia Register Australia was founded in 2014 by anti-racism advocate and lawyer Mariam Veiszadeh. It collects data and provides support in ways that are not currently available to many LGBTQ+ victims of hate crimes in Australia.

The Register gives people who experience hate incidents a place to report what happened, have their experiences taken seriously, receive referrals to culturally sensitive legal and psychological services and, if they choose, be supported through the process of reporting to police. 

The Register has published five reports that provide the kind of rich, evidence-based analysis of trends and patterns that can inform policy and law reform. The LGBTQ+ community would benefit from having a similar system that captures incidents of hate crimes, supports victims and analyses and reports on the evidence.

What is happening overseas

Some countries have already developed LGBTQ+-specific reporting mechanisms worth examining.

In the United Kingdom, an app called Zoteria, developed by Vodafone and Stonewall, allows victims and bystanders to report anti-LGBTQ+ hate incidents. The app connects users with support services including legal advice, mental health resources and LGBTQ+-friendly services, while also generating annual reports that analyse the data collected. In its first year alone, 688 incidents were logged.

In the United States, the GLAAD Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker has recorded 3382 attacks since June 2022, and publicly maps incidents by region and date, and has filters available for the type of incident (assault, vandalism, harassment etc…), the target type (drag performer, gay man etc…) and the date range. 

However, it does not provide support to people who report incidents. Rather, it states that:

“Anyone looking for additional assistance is encouraged to contact their local LGBTQ+ community leaders and law enforcement if needed.” 

Victims of hate crimes need support in managing the multitude of repercussions that come from having been subjected to a bias motivated crime, not just encouragement to seek support elsewhere. Platforms that collect reports but provide no support to the people who make them are inadequate. A reporting mechanism that is purely extractive; taking information from someone who has just been targeted for violence and offering nothing in return, falls well short of what is needed.

What Australia should do

Earlier this year, a New South Wales parliamentary committee recommended that the NSW government fund community reporting services for hate crimes directed at specific communities. That recommendation is welcome, but it does not go far enough.

Australia needs reporting systems that integrate data collection with genuine, wrap-around support. That means trauma-informed mental health services. It means LGBTQ+-friendly legal advice. It means helping victims navigate the police system if they choose to go down that path. And it means rigorous, independent analysis of the data collected, so that we build an evidence base that can underpin meaningful law reform.

Australia also needs national consistency. Patchwork approaches — different definitions, different data collection methods, different levels of support across states and territories — will produce an incomplete picture and allow the problem to remain invisible in the gaps between jurisdictions.

The human rights dimension

This is not just a policy question. It is a human rights obligation. Australia ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1980. That treaty requires governments to take positive steps to protect people from violence and cruel or degrading treatment. 

The Victorian Charter of Human Rights gives those obligations domestic force. Thus, governments are required to address the escalating violence against LGBTQ+ people that we are currently seeing in Australia.

A good starting point is for governments to fund the establishment of online anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime registers that:

1. Facilitate the reporting and recording of incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ hate.

2. Provide trauma informed mental health support and referrals for LGBTQ+ victims of hate crimes.

3. Provide legal support and referrals for persons who have experienced LGBTQ+ hate crimes.

4. Support LGBTQ+ victims to make a report to police, should they wish to do so.

5. Undertake rigorous quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data collected and publish evidence-based reports that capture contemporary trends in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes.

6. Consult key stakeholders and undertake advocacy around reforms to address anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes, e.g. community education and awareness raising; bystander intervention programs; and increasing public safety for LGBTQ+ individuals; and

7. Is sustainably funded to undertake all of the above services.

Government action that implements these seven recommendations would amount to best practice in responding to the anti-LGBTQ hate crime, by ensuring that measures are in place that are evidence-based, survivor-centred, nationally consistent and provide a strong foundation for prevention, accountability and reform.