Data collection on hate crimes against LGBTQ individuals is often scattered at best, as due to underreporting and misidentification, the data tends to be incomplete and/or unreliable. Still, at least 16.7% of hate crimes are based on sexual orientation, the third-largest category. Plus, it is known that lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women are five times more likely to experience violent victimization. In fact, 44% of lesbians and 61% of bisexual women experience rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, compared to 35% of straight women, and many of the victims of hate crime violence are transgender women.

The LGBTQ acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual all refer to sexuality, while the term “transgender” refers to any individual whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth, and it is used as an umbrella term to encompass those who fall into a binary identity (man or woman) as well as a nonbinary one. Queer, meanwhile, is a general umbrella term used for both sexuality and gender identity.