Hate Crimes Against the LGBTIQ+ Community Are Increasing

This was highlighted by Vienna lawyer Helmut Graupner, president of the Lambda Legal Committee - an association founded in 1991 that advocates for the equality of homosexual and transgender people. Graupner noted that victims rarely file complaints.

As Graupner explained in an interview with the APA, there have recently been more significant increases in hate-motivated attacks based on sexual orientation than in other groups that face attacks online and in everyday life. "In terms of motivation, ideology, ethnic origin, and religion are at the forefront. However, sexual orientation has displaced skin color from fourth place." Graupner assumes a high number of unreported cases, especially in this group. "It is alarming that only eight percent of affected homosexual and bisexual individuals file complaints. Over 90 percent of cases go unpunished." This is "the breeding ground for further violence." Perpetrators who are not stopped will "continue," Graupner fears.

60 Percent of LGBTIQ+ Individuals Affected by Harassment

In Austria, 60 percent of the LGBTIQ+ community have already experienced harassment. This is according to a report from the previous year by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights on the situation of LGBTIQ individuals. In terms of 2023, six percent were exposed to raw violence due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and 15 percent over the past five years.

"Particularly alarming are the figures related to schools. Seventy-three percent say they were subjected to bullying, ridicule, teasing, insults, or threats at school," Graupner explained to the APA. In 2019, this was still 43 percent in Austria. School bullying for young LGBTIQ+ individuals has thus increased by 70 percent within five years.

Current Case "Completely New Dimension"

The current case, in which 17 gay men were severely abused, robbed, injured, and humiliated by a homophobic network, was described by Graupner as a "completely new dimension. Such a thing has not existed in this form before." The Vienna lawyer fears that there could be far more victims who have not yet reported to the police. He strongly advised affected individuals to contact victim support organizations and involve law enforcement authorities. "For over 20 years, there has been legal and psychosocial support during proceedings, which costs victims nothing but is invaluable," Graupner emphasized.

DÖW: Anti-Queerness Has Tradition

"For a political milieu in which homosexuality is still sometimes treated as a 'psychiatric disorder', anti-queerness has a tradition," states the Right-Wing Extremism Report 2023, published in January and prepared by the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW) on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior. And that the image of homosexuality is mixed with pedophilia is definitely something that has been observed, it was said on Friday at the DÖW.

It was noted that starting from new right-wing circles and the Freedom Youth (FJ), there was systematic agitation against the "Pride Month" June for queer lifestyles as early as 2021. This culminated in an intervention by identitarian activists against the Vienna Pride on June 19, 2021, where the afterparty was disrupted with a banner featuring the hashtag "no_pridemonth". Subsequently, June was declared by the FPÖ Youth as "Patriot Month instead of Pride Month!", according to the report.

The DÖW points to further actions in the following years. For example, in June 2022: "Already on the night of June 3, there was an activist intervention against a drag queen reading in a municipal library in Vienna: Activists erected a symbolic red-white-red wall in front of its entrance," reads the Right-Wing Extremism Report.

On March 29, 2023, there was another action when activists symbolically sealed the Türkis Rosa Lila Villa. "A banner ('Viennese Child Protection - Officially Sealed') and posters ('Caution! This building is a crime scene! Close Villa Vida!') were attached to the scaffolding around the entrance of the building. The location was thus 'marked as a crime scene', referring to a drag queen reading held there on March 26," wrote Resistance in Motion, according to the report. Furthermore, an involved activist is quoted, who in the "Heimatkurier" provided a hint about the propagandistic embellishment between the actions against homosexuals and pedophile offenders. "... the action is directed against 'sick men who dress as women to play with small children', the report states.

The DÖW also referred to demonstrations or rallies in connection with the trial against former Burgtheater actor Florian Teichtmeister. In all these actions, there were also content overlaps between representatives of the New Right, such as the Identitarians, very traditional and particularly conservative Catholic circles, and proponents of the Corona denier scene.

However - to address the so-called "Pedo Hunters" - it seems rather implausible to the experts of the DÖW that representatives of the Identitarians would have appeared in connection with the actions as described in Graz. That is simply not their style. Acts of violence against homosexuals and the physical mistreatment of people would rather fit very well with neo-Nazis, it was said in response to an APA inquiry.

(APA/Red)

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