Members of Quebec’s 2SLGBTQ+ community reporting being victims of violence and discrimination has increased over the past year.
According to a La Presse report, Interligne, a Quebec-based organization that aids the LGBTQ+ community, says its annual report indicates that calls for people who have been victims of violence have more than doubled compared to last year.
Cases of discrimination related to sexual orientation increased by 308 percent.
In 2023-2024, Interligne, formerly known as Gai Écoute, received 60 calls about discrimination, compared to 245 for 2024-2025, while calls about violence increased from 134 to 282 for the same period.
Data involving violence was for incidents that took place both in private, but also verbal and physical violence suffered out in public.
Experts say the situation has become worse since the pandemic. The isolation and proliferation of online echo chambers has been fertile ground for legitimizing hate speech against members of the community. As tolerance towards sexual and gender diversity is declining, LGBTQ+ people are the ones who suffer the most.
Interligne received a total of nearly 20,000 calls in 2024-2025.
Online support groups are also receiving more testimonies of trans people being verbally abused.
According to Statistics Canada, people from sexually diverse backgrounds are twice as likely to have experienced bullying and harassment as their heterosexual peers. Among people from gender diversity, that number is three times higher than the general population.
