Absolutely right. But banning conversion therapy is confusing cause and effect: it is simply the most extreme and obvious effect of homophobia. It’s also an easy win, like banning the use of kittens as footballs. The abhorrent practice that has to go is homophobia. But “Minister recognises insidious nature of prejudice and attempts to unpick centuries of ingrained hate” makes a less snappy headline.
Buried within this long-overdue survey is a more startling, and depressing, figure: more than two-thirds of respondents said they had avoided holding hands in public with a same-sex partner. Startling, because it’s only two-thirds; depressing, because it just is. [...]
Right now, police forces across the country are preparing for a rise in domestic violence linked to England’s World Cup performance. A study by Lancaster University, published in the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, found instances of domestic violence rose 38% when England lost, and 26% when they won or drew. Some women are cheering for their lives. There’s no research yet into homophobic violence at World Cup time, but you can feel it on the streets. LGBT hate incidents were experienced by 40% of respondents to the government survey, with over 90% of the most serious offences going unreported. [...]
A real action plan would tackle homophobia at the root, in health and education. It would make PrEP HIV drugs available to everyone today – one pill a day, proved to save lives and money by dramatically reducing HIV infection. The Scottish government has rolled it out nationwide; Theresa May refuses to.
Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector of schools in England, said some faith schools run by religious conservatives were “deliberately resisting” British values and equalities law. If May’s faith truly is the personal matter she insists it is, she’ll have no problem immediately secularising all state schools. Every pupil should be safe in a system that prioritises the rational over the supernatural, and love over hate.
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