Hate crimes in the United States spiked by 35 percent in 2021 according to FBI statistics, led by a sharp rise in attacks motivated by sexual orientation.
The FBI recorded a total of 10,840 hate crime incidents in 2021, up from 8,052 in 2020, according to a supplemental addition to the agency’s annual hate crimes report.
The annual report tracks hate crime incidents based on reports from thousands of law enforcement agencies nationwide; a first 2021 report issued by the FBI in December showed a decrease in hate crimes, but it relied on incomplete data, according to the agency.
The supplemental report, which includes a more complete data set from law enforcement, paints a stark picture of bias-fueled crime in the United States.
Proportionate to their total population, members of the gay, lesbian and bisexual communities were the second most likely to suffer a hate crime in 2021, and anti-LGB hate crimes grew faster than hate crimes against other groups from 2020 to 2021.
The FBI records hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation separately from those targeting people over their gender identity.
The FBI recorded 1,707 anti-LGB hate crimes in 2021, a 54 percent increase from the 1,110 recorded in 2020. In those incidents, 1,979 people were targeted for their sexual orientation.
According to UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, there are about 10 million people in the United States who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual — based on that estimate, roughly one in every 5,000 lesbian, gay or bisexual people in the U.S. was a victim of a hate crime in 2021.
Hate crimes against transgender and gender non-conforming people rose 29 percent in 2021, with 342 incidents recorded versus 266 incidents in 2020.
According to the UCLA study, there are about 1.4 million transgender people in the United States, meaning the FBI recorded one anti-transgender hate crime victim for every 3,571 members of that community.
Notably, gay…
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