The government has been forced to maintain the ‘freedom of expression’ section of the Coroners and Justice Bill. The section will be enacted through Royal Assent and effectively provide protection for "discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practice" to the law on incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Phelim Mac Cafferty, National Spokesperson for LGBTGreens:
“Given that a stated aim of this legislation is to ‘increase public confidence in the fairness of the wider justice system’, what an own goal! In a period of time when hate crimes on the LGBT community are on the increase this is about the worst possible signal to bigots.
“To Tory Lords, whose words were so effortlessly thrown during the debates on Wednesday night[1], to those who seek to batter us on the streets, we say outright: this pandering to homophobia will be resisted.
“To the BBC, who yesterday reported online that “There were fears the law, which would apply in England and Wales only, would leave comedians open to prosecution,”[2] we say nonsense. Are Tory Lords really suggesting that the Jim Davidsons of this world because of their ‘humour’ should be entitled to incite hatred against LGBT people and we have no way of responding? That’s what their vote indicated on Wednesday.
“Again LGB citizens (trans citizens are not even discussed) are being treated in legislative terms as some sort of 2nd class citizen. It’s simply outrageous!
Phelim concluded:
“Given much of the noise Labour continue to make on how much work they’re doing on lgbt rights, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t invoke the Parliament Act to force through a vote on the issue.
“The Coroners and Justice Bill was won by the government in the House of Commons and it could have used the Parliament Act to bypass the traditionally reactionary vote in the Lords. Why are the Lords still the millstone around the neck of progressive legislation? It’s tempting to conclude that with other groups the government wouldn’t dare to leave it to the Lords to legislate in this area, but somehow it’s ok for LGB people.”
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