In 2024, there were 2,700 hate crime offenses targeting individuals due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, according to the FBI’s annual compilation of hate crime data from nearly 15,000 police departments nationwide.
In total, more than 2,278 people were targeted due to their sexual orientation, while another 527 were targeted due to their gender identity, according to the data. The bias incidents based on gender identity involved 382 anti-trans offenses and another 145 anti-gender non-conforming offenses.
The 2024 numbers represented a slight decrease compared to 2023, which saw 2,402 recorded incidents on the basis of sexual orientation and 547 on the basis of gender identity. In 2022, the same reported tallied 1,947 sexual orientation-related incidents and 547 incidents on the basis of gender identity.
The numbers, however, likely only represent a partial list of hate crimes, given how many such incidents go unreported.
“The FBI’s 2024 hate crime data has revealed a national emergency hiding in plain sight,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson said in a written statement. “Everyone deserves to be safe in this country and have the chance to thrive. But anti-equality politicians continue to spread lies about LGBTQ+ people, trying to push us out of more and more corners of society. Those smears come with a cost. The FBI has exposed a chilling reality: our community remains a target of violence — and that is unacceptable. LGBTQ+ people, just like everyone else, should be free to live our lives, pursue our careers and education, build our homes and pursue our American Dreams, without the threat of violence hanging over our heads. This FBI data is clear: we need more support from our political leaders, not animosity and attacks that seek to demonize us.”
The majority — 52% — of the more than 11,000 single-bias incidents reported in 2024 were driven by race, ethnicity, or ancestry bias, followed by religious bias (25%), sexual orientation bias (17%), gender identity bias (4%), disability bias (1.4%), and gender bias (1%).
Among the single-bias hate crime incidents based on sexual orientation, 52% targeted gay men, 37% targeted LGBTQ individuals broadly, 8% targeted lesbians, 2% targeted bisexual people, and another 1% consisted of anti-heterosexual bias.
Among the anti-trans hate crimes, the greatest share of them — 29% — occurred at residences or homes, while 19% took place on roads or sidewalks and 9% were at schools or colleges.
