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Swiss report over 100 homophobic attacks in three months

The director of gay rights organization Pink Cross, Bastian Baumann, is calling for homophobic crimes to be recorded as such by police after a helpline set up by the organization recorded over 100 cases in just three months.

Published: 16 February 2017 09:15 CET
Swiss report over 100 homophobic attacks in three months
Photo: nito103/Depositphotos
The LGBT+ helpline was set up in December 2016 for victims to report cases of homophobic and transphobic violence in Switzerland, something that currently isn’t officially recorded. 
 
Speaking to broadcaster SRF on Wednesday, Baumann said the cases reported to the helpline involved people who had been “pushed and spat at, others have to go to hospital because they have been badly injured”. 
 
Pink Cross encourages victims to go to the police, where their cases are dealt with, however current Swiss law — which specifies that every person should be treated equally regardless of sexual orientation — does not demand they be explicitly recorded as homophobic violence.
 
For Baumann, that’s a mistake. If there is no data, “it’s as though these crimes do not exist”, he told the broadcaster.
 
MP Rosmarie Quadranti has submitted a proposal calling for the federal government to change its policy and include homophobic violence in the country’s official criminal statistics.
 
“Statistical data is important to help prevent such crimes,” the broadcaster reported her as saying.
 
Last year, after two gay men were attacked in a Geneva park, Geneva-based gay rights organization Dialogai said their studies showed that gay men in the city were four times as likely to be attacked as the male population as a whole.

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LGBT

Reported attacks against LGBT people in Switzerland reach record high

A record 134 cases of violence were reported against lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people in Switzerland last year, according to a new report from three Swiss non-profits.

Published: 18 May 2023 12:26 CEST
Reported attacks against LGBT people in Switzerland reach record high

There are typically three attacks a week on LGBT people in Switzerland which include serious threats to a person’s safety or physical violence, found a new report released on Wednesday.

The report, by queer umbrella organization Pink Cross along with lesbian organization LOS and Transgender Network Switzerland, was released to coincide with the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.

It noted that the total of 134 cases recorded in 2022 was the highest annual figure yet.

Pink Cross said the number of unreported cases was likely far higher, and that the spike in reports may be linked to an increased awareness of – and access to – resources such as the LGBTIQ Helpline.

That’s because people who know about helpful resources are more likely to report violence against them, it said.

The higher number of reported cases doesn’t necessarily mean Switzerland is becoming more unsafe for LGBT people, the report stressed.

However, Pink Cross Executive Director Roman Heggli told the NZZ newspaper that it has become socially more acceptable to question LGBT rights in the last years. LGBT people are also more visible, which has led to more hostility, he said.

The report found victims were often attacked in public places where they were visible: on the way home, at public events, or even on trains and buses.

Several incidents were even reported at Zurich Pride in 2022. Most involved verbal harassment – but one reportedly involved perpetrators throwing beer bottles at attendees.

The country has historically lagged behind some of its European counterparts on LGBT rights. Marriage equality in Switzerland was formalised only in 2022.

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