There were 243 reported bias incidents against the LGBTQ community in New Jersey between Jan. 1, 2025, and July 31, 2025, according to state police data, while national statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation show that reported hate crimes motivated by a person’s sexual orientation comprised 17.2 percent of all such crimes and 3.9 percent were motivated by gender identity.
The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ civil rights organization in the country, included the FBI’s annual crime report for 2024 in a news release, saying hate crimes against the LGBTQ community nationwide remain “alarmingly high,” and are still the top three most reported categories while overall violent crime continues to decline. The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, responding to a request by Out in Jersey for statewide data, provided the state police figures and also stressed the attorney general’s commitment to protecting LGBTQ individuals.
“In New Jersey, we’re committed to ensuring that all of our residents can feel safe from hate and bias,” said state Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. “Enforcing the laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression is a priority for my office, and we are raising public awareness on combating and reporting bias while taking proactive steps to engage our communities in creating change.”
The New Jersey State Police bias incident data, which came from incidents reported to the state police by county and municipal law enforcement agencies from Jan. 1 to July 31 of this year, breaks down the number of incidents perpetrated against LGBTQ people in the state.
In New Jersey, a bias incident is defined as an act that targets a person, a group of people, or public or private property because of actual or perceived race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, or other characteristics, according to the attorney general’s office.
A bias crime, commonly referred to as a hate crime, in New Jersey means someone commits a “predicate offense” — in other words a criminal act — intended to intimidate a member of a protected class or with knowledge that the act would make the targeted member of the class feel intimidated, according to the attorney general’s office.
Not all bias incidents rise to the level of a bias or hate crime, the attorney general’s office noted, and may include acts that are not necessarily illegal and may be protected under the First Amendment such as using slurs or certain other forms of hateful or otherwise offensive speech, making inappropriate gestures, or mocking a disabled person. Examples of bias or hate crimes include murder, assault, aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, and burglary motivated by bias against a member of a protected class.
The FBI said that for its 2024 report, which covered 95.1 percent of the country’s population, 16,419 law enforcement agencies submitted incident reports involving 11,679 criminal incidents and 13,683 related offenses as being motivated by bias toward race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.
The report said there were 1,950 recorded incidents perpetrated because of an alleged victim’s sexual orientation and 463 committed because of an alleged victim’s gender identity. Bias crimes based on race or ethnicity remained the largest category, making up 51.8 percent of all hate crimes, the report said, and those based on religion were second, just ahead of sexual orientation.
Incidents perpetrated against LGBTQ people in New Jersey
- Anti-gay, 125
- Anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (mixed group), 52
- Anti-transgender, 29
- Anti-lesbian, 24
- Anti-gender non-conforming, 8
- Anti-bisexual, 5
Source: New Jersey State Police
“The FBI’s 2024 hate crime data has revealed a national emergency hiding in plain sight,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in the statement. “Everyone deserves to be safe in this country and have the chance to thrive. But anti-equality politicians continue to spread lies … trying to push us out of more and more corners of society.”
New Jersey State Police data showed there were 1,497 reported bias incidents in all categories, not just LGBTQ, between Jan. 1 and July 31 of this year and that 7.1 bias incidents per day took place within that time frame. The number of municipalities with a reported bias incident of any kind within that time frame totaled 276 out of the state’s 564 municipalities, the data showed.
The municipalities with the most reported bias incidents of any kind within that time frame were Fort Lee with 36 and the townships of Cherry Hill, East Brunswick and Lakewood with 35, the report said. There were 94 municipalities reporting only one such bias incident within the time frame, the report said.
Robinson said in the statement that nationally, the smears from anti-equality politicians come with a cost, a chilling reality the FBI data exposed, which is that the community remains a target of violence, and that is not acceptable.
“This FBI data is clear: we need more support from our political leaders, not animosity and attacks that seek to demonize us,” Robinson said.
In New Jersey, the attorney general’s office said it partnered in 2024 with the Division of Criminal Justice and the Division on Civil Rights to present the “No Hate in the Garden State” campaign, which was intended to educate the public about bias incidents and bias crimes. The office noted that in 2025, DCR and DCJ jointly held “Know Your Rights” presentations across the state to explain civil rights protections and show how to file a complaint through the New Jersey Bias Investigation Access System.
Also in 2025, DCR said in a statement that the state’s Law Against Discrimination prohibits New Jersey employers, housing providers, and places of public accommodation from discriminating against the LGBTQ community.
The attorney general’s Bias Incident Dashboard is online. Customized searches can be performed on both data dashboards.
To report a suspected bias incident or suspected bias crime in New Jersey, call (800) 277-BIAS. Callers do not have to give their name or contact information.
njoag.gov/biasdata
njoag.gov/justicedata
