Intersex people report alarming rise in violence and harassment

Europeans who do not fit the typical definition of male or female are grappling with an “alarming” rise in violence, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as concerted campaigns seek to sow disinformation and fuel hatred towards them.

- Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspondent

The findings from the EU’s Agency for Fundamental Rights, published on Tuesday, were based on responses from 1,920 people in 30 countries across Europe. All of them identified as intersex, an umbrella term referring to those with innate variations of sex characteristics that includes people who identify as trans, non-binary and gender diverse.

It found that since 2019, the rates of violence and harassment against intersex people have sharply increased - particularly among those who identify as trans, non-binary and gender diverse.

A total of 34%, said they had been physically or sexually assaulted in the five years before the survey, up from 22% in 2019. Between 2019 and 2023, the rate of reported hate-motivated harassment rose from 42% to 74%.