Stop Homophobia

The Campaign for change starts now!

This week sees the launch of a campaign for a change in the law to allow for greater sentencing of offenders in homophobic hate crime incidents.

Daniel Tyler, 21, from Manchester is launching the #StopHomophobia campaign for change following the media frenzy surrounding a homophobic incident in which a friend of his was involved earlier this week.
Questions were asked by many about the British Transport Police’s reaction to the case, with the offender, a 56 year old man, being arrested at the time of the offence in the early hours of Monday 5th November, but being released later that day with nothing more than a police caution.

Daniel was shocked to learn of the reasoning behind what he has described as a ‘worryingly lenient punishment’ and as a result felt that this needed to be shared with others and that things need to change.

In the United Kingdom, there is no specific homophobic aggravated offence as there is for racially/religiously aggravated hate crimes, meaning that offenders cannot be held to account for their actions in the same way that they perhaps otherwise would be.

Daniel has launched the #StopHomophobia campaign with an online petition at www.stophomophobia.co.uk which asks people to help encourage the government to review the need for a specific homophobic aggravated offence whilst also highlighting the fact that the same poor level of protection exists for bisexual, transgender and disabled victims.

He says:
‘Following the incident on a train earlier this week which involved a gentleman attacking two gay men with a hideous tirade of homophobic abuse, I think it’s safe to say that I was one of many who were shocked and disappointed with the outcome. Having followed the case closely though and learned of BTP’s reasoning for giving only a caution, what has shocked me more is the lack of a specific homophobic aggravated offence which could have allowed them to ensure that a more severe and appropriate punishment was achieved.

I have every confidence that BTP done everything they could in this case and the victims have released a statement saying that they were fully satisfied with the efforts of their officers, which I think should be commended.
This cannot happen again though. This incident has bought to light the discrepancies in consequences for homophobic hate crimes in contrast to those which are racially or religiously aggravated.

Emma West spent last Christmas (2011) behind bars as a direct result of her racist rant on a tram which went viral.
Jacqueline Wilson, who proceeded with a similar tirade of abuse, was sentenced to 21 weeks behind bars.
This begs the question; why, despite a very similar offence, but of a homophobic nature, was this incident of such lower priority in the eyes of the law?

There is simply not enough protection for LGBT people from instances of hate crime and this has got to change.’
The campaign has already picked up positive responses and widespread twitter discussions have resulted in support for the need for greater consequences from councillors, MPs and Police & Crime Commissioner candidates.

With a target of 100,000 signatures, the #StopHomophobia campaign for change starts now.

Published: 15-Nov-2012: (1625)