The Minister for LGBT+ Equality writes about the importance of making hate crime against LGBTQIA+ people an aggravated offence
BY OLIVIA BAILEY MP, IMAGE BY BRETT COVE
The question that I am asked the most as an MP is, “why did you want to get into politics?” The honest answer is, because politics changed my life.
As a young lesbian, I grew up under the shadow of Section 28, the legislation that made it illegal to talk positively about same-sex relationships in schools.
Since then, we have made incredible progress which means I can live authentically as a lesbian MP and the Minister for LGBT+ Equality.
When I was 16, Labour scrapped Section 28 and ensured that schools could no longer deny gay people’s existence. When I was 17, a law was passed to allow civil partnerships which gave me the belief that I could have a relationship that was treated equally to those of my straight friends. Whilst I was at university, the Equality Act 2010 was passed, which outlawed discrimination against me, and then at 26, I embraced my now-wife in Parliament Square as equal marriage became law.
Despite all the progress we have made, I know many of us still experience that fear when we walk down the street holding hands with our partner. We have all seen stories of horrendous hate crime against the LGBTQIA+ community, and there is that persistent doubt that the law will protect us. Living authentically is an everyday act of courage, but it should not have to be one. That’s why Labour committed in our manifesto to equalise the strands of hate crime, ensuring tougher sentences for hate crime motivated by someone’s sexuality or transgender identity.
I’m delighted to say that we have now delivered on our promise.
Through the Crime and Policing Act, hate crime against LGBTQIA+ people will now be classified as an aggravated offence, bringing the law in line with protections we already have for victims of hate crime motivated by race and religion. I am also pleased that the Act also equalises hate crime laws on disability and sex, because all forms of hate are completely unacceptable and have no place in our society.
This is a huge milestone for our community and sends a clear message that we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and be taken as seriously as any victim in the justice system. It’s exactly the kind of change that I know politics can deliver; something I could have only dreamed of as a scared teenager all those years ago.
I recently met with Amanda Collier from The Traitors who shone a light on how monumental this change is. As a former Met Police detective, she shared with me how she had witnessed first-hand the devastating impact that hate crime has not just for the victims, but also their families and society as a whole. We agreed on how important it is for our community to be ourselves loudly and proudly, and have the laws in place to protect us while we celebrate how far we have come.
Stronger penalties against hate crime perpetrators is just one way we are going faster and further to make the UK a safer place for LGBTQIA+ people – because all people deserve to live freely and without fear, shame or discrimination.
My team and I are working tirelessly to deliver on another Labour manifesto commitment, delivering a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices. Conversion practices tell people that our community is wrong and that they should be subjected to physical and emotional abuse to change who they are. That is undeniably abuse, it is abhorrent, and we will outlaw them as soon as possible.
We have come so far, but there is much more to do. We shouldn’t have to weigh up whether we will experience violence for simply being who we are in public. This Labour government believes that the next generation of young LGBTQIA + people should never have to live with this burden, and I hope that clamping down on hate crime is one step towards this.
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