Ellie Goulding: Constant attacks on trans people ‘exhausting’
Exclusive: I believe it's the minimum of human decency to allow people to be their true selves to love who they love and to do whatever the f*** they want without harm, without danger, and without oppression."
Ellie Goulding has called on LGBTQ allies to step up and “to protect, support, and show the ultimate love” in the face of increasing attacks on LGBTQ people.
Accepting the Ally award at the 2022 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar on Wednesday (12 October) the ‘Burn’ singer recognised her LGBTQ support.
“I’m so grateful for that and to be an advocate for LGBTQ rights in whatever way I can is literally the least I can do.”
She continued: “I believe it’s the minimum of human decency to allow people to be their true selves to love who they love and to do whatever the f*** they want without harm, without danger, and without oppression.”
Praising the LGBTQ community as “strong and so resilient,” Ellie added that “the constant attacks from all angles – especially on trans people – is exhausting.”
“Now more than ever, us allies need to step up – and we will, I promise – up to the plate and shout louder than ever before to protect – and I promise we will – to protect, support, and show the ultimate love to our fellow human beings, and I promise I will do that.”
Earlier this year, police forces across the UK reported the largest annual increases in homophobic and transphobic hate crimes.
VICE World News figures revealed a 168 percent increase in reported homophobic hate crimes from 2016-17 to 2021-22, from 10,003 to 26,824.
Data also revealed a 32 percent increase compared to the previous year, the biggest annual rise ever recorded.
From 2016-17 to 2021-22 there was a 59 percent increase (1,292 to 4,399) in transphobic hate crimes.
This is also the largest annual increase ever recorded.