Whilst there have been notable strides made to improve the legal protection, such as the Equality Act 2010 and section 66 of the Sentencing Act 2020 that gives the court the power to grant a sentence uplift to the sentence for any offence that is deemed to be aggravated by the ground of sexual orientation or transgender identity,unfortunately, homophobia is still alive and well in many quarters. 26,152 sexual orientation crimes were reported in In 2021/22, an increase of 41%.
Whilst it is encouraging that sexual orientation hate crimes are being reported in greater numbers, all too frequently victims of homophobia in all its forms believe that complaints will not be addressed with the same vigour as other types of hate crime, leaving the risk of homophobia being under-reported. This in turn leads to increasing offences and levels of violence, verbal abuse and unwanted sexual contact rising even higher, across the board, as the perpetrators realise that there is no appetite to pursue them.
Regardless of whether it is individuals suffering violent attack or an employee constantly worn down by discriminatory comments, spiteful remarks and limited career progression in the workplace, when such behaviour is reported it should be acted upon. All types of offences should be thoroughly addressed in the same manner as any other hate crime.
Everyone has the right to be themselves and not have to fear the consequences of being “found out” as gay or transgender and they should certainly not feel that they have to hide their situation to avoid unpleasant consequences.
There are significant areas of society where gay individuals seem to be completely unacceptable. For example, a leading male footballer has still not come out during the course of their career and it seems highly unlikely that this will happen in the near future. There seems, to all intents and purposes, to be a toxic environment towards gay men in British football which appears to be entrenched from the top to bottom of the football club culture. The various football authorities have campaigns that address other areas of discrimination but do not seem to have the appetite for the same type of robust campaign that weeded out the greater part of the racist behaviour that was regularly witnessed on the terraces and doubtless was also evident behind closed doors in the changing rooms.
Gay Lawyers completely understands how unsettling it can be for an individual to have to describe the actions directed towards them and the words used by homophobic abusers. However, unless firm action is taken to fight against this kind of activity it will continue to be ignored, or worse still, considered acceptable under the “banter” banner. Society has to fully understand that discrimination of this nature is expressly prohibited by law and it will be prosecuted wherever it is found.