78
RESTORING RESPECT: ADDRESSING ANTI-LGBTQ HATE INCIDENTS ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES THROUGH RESTORATIVE JUSTICE Liyana Kayali and Mark A. Walters KEYWORDS: hate crime; LGBTQ; student; restorative justice; university. Universities not only provide opportunities for advanced study and academic qualification, but they serve as springboards to adult life. The university environment is a space in which students can explore their value systems, preferences and beliefs, interact with a more diverse set of peers, and develop an outlook and an independence that will carry through to their next phase of life. For many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer (LGBTQ) students, this important developmental stage can occur within what can, at times, feel like an increasingly homophobic and transphobic climate. These sometimes hostile environments can be compounded where universities have few effective means of safeguarding LGBTQ students against harm. Within the United Kingdom (UK) recorded anti-LGBTQ hate crimes have risen sharply over the past five years, with anti-trans hate crime offences increasing by 317% and sexual orientation-based hate crimes increasing by 216% to 2,333 and 14,491, respectively (Home Office 2019). Despite optimistic suggestions that these figures represent an increase in reporting rates, as against an actual increase in incidents, randomised population surveys from the same period indicate an increase in both anti-LGBT attitudes among the British public, as well as in the overall incidence of anti-LGBT hate crimes and incidents outside of official reporting records (Walters 2019). The university sector has absorbed and mirrored these disturbing trends. A survey conducted by the National Union of Students (NUS) in higher or further education showed that 31% of lesbian,
