Some 134 anti-LGBTQ attacks registered in 2022

A LGBTQ Pride parade in Geneva in 2019. Keystone / Martial Trezzini

At an average of almost three cases per week, reported anti-LGBTQ discrimination in Switzerland reached a record level in 2022. But unreported cases mean the true extent is difficult to assess, rights groups said on Wednesday.

Almost a third of the reports to a helpline last year came from trans people, most of them non-binary, various groups wrote on Wednesday to mark an International Day Against Homo, Bi, and Transphobia.

The previous year, 92 cases were recorded by the lesbian organization Switzerland (LOS), the Transgender Network Switzerland (TGNS) and Pink Cross.

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The rise in 2022 is partly due to increased hostility in politics and the media towards LGBTQ groups, and especially towards non-binary people, the groups said.

They are particularly concerned about rising reports of attacks on transgender people. And even if the true number of cases here is difficult to assess – many go unreported – the most elementary rights of trans and non-binary people are increasingly publicly questioned, the organisations said.

They specifically mentioned the statement last year by outgoing finance minister Ueli Maurer, who said he didn’t mind who succeeded him, as long as the person was not an “it” (i.e. non-binary). Maurer later said his comment was a deliberate provocation at a time of societal “decadence”.

Such attitudes are fatal to the safety and mental health of trans people, the associations said on Wednesday.