Lucy Spraggan says homophobic abuse has increased during lockdown

Lucy Spraggan says the COVID-19 lockdown has caused a spike in homophobia.

The openly gay former ‘X Factor’ star says she has been the victim of “four separate incidents” in recent months and she blames the lockdown, where people spent more time online.

Lucy, 30, told The Sun’s Bizarre Showbiz column: “I’ve never had much homophobic abuse in my life but since we came out of lockdown I’ve had four separate incidents.

“And a man just called me a ‘slag’ on the train for no reason. It feels like something has changed and I feel it at the shows at the moment.”

Lucy also revealed she and her girlfriend suffered verbal abuse during the summer.

She said: “I played Boardmasters festival in Cornwall. Afterwards I was walking along with my girlfriend and a couple of friends – and a guy just turned around, looked at us holding hands, and was like: ‘D****!’

“We just looked at each other like, ‘What?’ The nature of people sitting in their house on their computer for two years where you can make a comment with no consequence . . . it has washed out into outdoor society.”

Meanwhile, in October, the ‘Choices’ singer revealed that she and her girlfriend cut a holiday to Malta short due to ‘threatening’ homophobia from locals.

Sharing her ordeal on Instagram, she wrote: “Our holiday lasted 2.5 days. I was SO looking forward to Malta and one of the reasons was because I’d heard it was so LGBT friendly and progressive.So many people recommended it and said they’d had such a good time.First day we arrived we realised we’d landed in the wrong part of town - every other bar was a ‘gentlemen’s club’ and it was clearly a party destination, and everywhere we went someone shouted ‘lesbians’ at us.

“I am sick to f****** death of feeling threatened as a woman. Sick to fucking death of feeling threatened as a lesbian.I am sick to death of being spoken down to by men across the globe. Came home and went to the spa.”