The young LGBT+ lived experience and relationship with the police service in Greater Manchester

The failure of LGBT+ individuals to report instances of homo/bi/transphobia
persists despite significant advances in legislature and anti-homophobia policing
initiatives. Whilst seminal research has been conducted in the Manchester Gay
Village as a primary site for LGBT+ interactions and its associated dangers, this
research is dated and fails to appropriately conceptualise the entwined
experiences of physical and online homo/bi/transphobia. Online social space, a
crucial tool for teenage LGBT+ individuals for guidance and exploration, has
illustrated the potential to influence perceptions of safety in physical LGBT+
social spaces through discussions of homo/bi/transphobia within said spaces,
without needing personal experience. Moreover, this research does not address
the relationship of the LGBT+ community with Greater Manchester Police (GMP),
who have faced scrutiny for their treatment of LGBT+ communities despite
leading in the creation of anti-homophobia initiatives. Because of my lived
experience as a young bisexual man from Manchester, this research adopts a
unique victim-orientated approach through the lens of the ideal victim to assess
whether GMP's policing of night-time economies and online hate crimes reflects
the needs of the 16-25-year-old LGBT+ community in Greater Manchester.
Furthermore, it will address whether perceptions of GMP, and their own
victimhood, are preventing young LGBT+ individuals from reporting instances of
homo/bi/transphobia. A mixed methods approach will be utilised to triangulate
statistical data with individual narratives and collective understandings using
surveys, interviews and focus groups to understand the perceptions and needs of
the young LGBT+ community and what GMP need to do to address those
perceptions and needs.