Recognising and challenging visible hate

Over a quarter of people with a disfigurement have been a victim of hate crime 

Tulsi, a burns survivor, will never forget the time she experienced abuse because of how she looks.

‘I was waiting at the bus stop and some men in a car pulled up. They opened the window and shouted “you deserve to eff-ing die because you’re so ugly” at me. I was just stood at the bus stop; they were complete strangers.’

Every day thousands of people across the UK who have a disfigurement such as mark, scar or condition that affects their appearance experience this kind of abuse. What many, like Tulsi, do not realise is that this can be reported as a hate crime. After hearing about these sorts of incidents for many years, we commissioned Savanta ComRes to survey over 1,000 people with a visible difference to find out about their experiences of hate crime and the impact it has had on their lives. The findings formed part of our recent Changing Faces’ #VisibleHate campaign.