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Labour Gay Hate Laws Defeated in Parliament
House of Lords
New laws that would ban Homophobic hatred defeated by House of Lordââ¬â¢s peers
"We are disappointed by the outcome of the vote in the House of Lords"
New laws that would mean anyone found guilty of criticising gay lifestyles could face a jail sentence of over 7 years, have been rejected by House of Lords peers in a vote of 81 to 57 at a late night session on Monday.
Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, is said to be disappointed by the vote and is now deciding whether or not to push the new laws through despite Monday's rejection, or to just allow for the rules to say as they are - a decision that he knows will anger gay rights activists.
The Ministry of Justice released a statement yesterday that said: “We are disappointed by the outcome of the vote in the House of Lords on an amendment which would seek to add a freedom of expression saving to the new offence of, 'Incitement of Hatred on grounds of Sexual Orientation'. We believe that the decision by the Lords will need to be looked at carefully.”
Although the law is seeking to protect gay rights, there has been a lot of protest against laws like these that some see as damaging to freedom of speech. The critics have been from many different areas not just anti-gay groups, and even prominent gay figures have voiced their concern, such as actor Christopher Biggins, columnist Matthew Parris and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. They believe that the new laws, put forward by Mr Straw, wouldn’t help the gay community, but would allow for more confusion and further misapplication of the law by the police.
Over the last few years there have been a number of cases of over zealous police action against people speaking out about various gay issues. These have included a Metropolitan Police warning to author Lynette Burrows, who questioned the value of gay adoption in a debate on a BBC Radio programme.
The opposition from members of the gay community is that these laws would only go further to strain the reputation of LGBT population of Britain, and would further destroy any debate on gay issues by heterosexual people, which they see as vital in ensuring that the gay community doesn’t get isolated in society.
The laws were drawn up by Jack Straw in conjunction with the gay lobby group, Stonewall. A spokesman for the group has rebuffed claims that the new laws would prevent freedom of speech. He said that it would still allow for people to question the gay community as long it did so in a “temperate and polite” way.
