Today the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) launched a ground-breaking report ‘Being Trans in the European Union’.

The report points to how trans people experience frequent discrimination and harassment, and draws upon the responses to FRA’s wider EU LGBT survey. The survey’s most striking result is the high level of repetitive violence and hate-motivated crime trans persons suffer.

“Despite significant advances, Ireland is not a safe place for trans people,” said Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI) Chief Executive Broden Giambrone. “The report shows, again, that trans people’s lives are marred by violence and harassment.”
Hate-Motivated Violence & Harassment

According to the results of this report, Ireland holds the ignoble distinction of having the second highest prevalence (13 per cent) of hate‑motivated violence in the last 12 months in EU Member States, following Lithuania. This is significantly higher than the EU average of 8 per cent.

The report also found Ireland to be in the top 5 member states when it came to hate-motivated harassment in the last 12 months, with a prevalence of 31 per cent. This compares negatively to the average of 22 per cent.

Respondents were asked if they avoided expressing their gender or avoided certain places for fear of assault, threat or harassment. Of the Irish respondents, 43 per cent said that they avoided expressing their gender and 66 per cent stated that they avoided certain places. Again, Ireland fared poorly as the EU trans average was 32 per cent and 52 per cent respectfully.

“These are incredibly troubling findings. There are real people behind these statistics and violence and harassment affects not just trans people but also their families and communities. There is an urgent need for action to deal with this,” said Giambrone.