Swiss LGTBIQ helpline: attacks more than doubled in 2023 

On Friday, three organisations who jointly operate a Swiss helpline drew attention to the big increase in reports and called for appropriate action. In 2023, 305 cases of verbal abuse or attacks against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer (LGBTIQ) people were reported to the Swiss LGBTIQ Helpline – more than twice as many as in 2022. The rapid increase shows that the more LGBTIQ-hostile climate in the media and politics has real consequences for the safety of such people in Switzerland, said Transgender Network Switzerland (TGNS), the Lesbian Organisation Switzerland (LOS) and the organisation Pink Cross, which jointly operate the helpline. + Read more: when voters said “yes” to same-sex marriage Most reports from Zurich The helpline has been recording reports of such “hate crimes” since 2016, the associations said. The aim is to visualise the extent of violence and discrimination since, as they noted, Swiss authorities do not collect comprehensive national statistics ...