Cases of LGBTI-phobia in Catalonia increase by 27% in 2023 

In 2023, the Observatory against LGBTI-phobia registered a total of 302 cases of violence and discrimination against the LGBTI community in Catalonia, an increase of 27.4% since 2022. This is the highest number ever registered by the organization.   

53% of all cases registered by the Observatory took place in the city of Barcelona, with Sant Martí being the district with the most registered cases, followed by Sants-Montjuïc and l’Eixample. Furthermore, 77% of all cases of discrimination and violence against the collective took place in the province of Barcelona. 

One in four cases in public 

119 of the registered cases of LGBTI-phobia were reported by gay men, while 41 cases were reported by trans women.  

Almost one in every four cases of discrimination and violence took place in public spaces. 

The three most common types of aggression registered in 2023 were cases of verbal assault, which accounted for 24.8% of all cases, followed by expressions of hatred with 24.5%, and physical assault made up 23.5% of all cases.  

According to the president of the Observatory against LGBTI-phobia, Eugeni Rodríguez, the numbers are “worrying” and he blamed “the far-right hate speech” as well as “the lack of political will” to reverse the situation.   

Meeting with Jaume Collboni

On Thursday, the Observatory met with Barcelona’s mayor Jaume Collboni to stress the importance of “strengthening current protocols” to “face the increase in cases head-on” and the need for a protocol for how to handle LGBTI-phobia in public transport.

According to the observatory, the Barcelona protocol, “should be the instrument that drives the policies against violence and discrimination” against the LGBTI collective.

So far in 2024, the observatory has registered four cases of LGBTI-phobia in Catalonia.