100 signatures reached
To: Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland QC MP
Make hate crimes towards LGBTQ+ an aggravated crime
Reform hate crime laws so that hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity are dealt with and punished in the same way as racially or religiously aggravated offences and act as a deterrent to help bring LGBTQ+ hate crime down.
Why is this important?
Hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community are on the rise. The Home Office reported from 2018 to 2019 police recorded 14,491 crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation an increase of 25% and a further 2,333 offences against transgender people because of their gender identity an increase of 37%. This only accounts for crimes reported with Stonewall reporting that four in five LGBT people (81 per cent) who experienced a hate crime or incident didn't report it to the police.
Despite the rise there has been no amendments to the law to count homophobic, biphobic or transphobic hate crimes as aggravated offences. Sections 29 to 32 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 created specific racially or religiously aggravated offences, which have higher maximum penalties than the non-aggravated versions of those offences, hate crimes towards the LGBTQ+ community should be brought up to the same level.
