Cllr Paul Elgood

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Labour has called on the Government to try again to reintroduce their legisation on 'gay hate' in the new session of Parliament that starts next week - after Conservative peer Lord Waddington's wrecking amendment was again supported by the House of Lords.

The Lords' amendment has been defeated by Labour MPs in the Commons four times - and had been going back-and-forth between the two chambers as the end of the parliamentary session approached.

Last night the Lords again voted to support it, and today, the last day of this parliamentary session, the Government admitted defeat in their battle with the Lords in order to protect its legislation.

All Conservative MPs in the Commons this week supported Lord Waddington's amendment, which is designed to wreck new laws designed to protect lesbians and gay men from homophobic hatred by allowing people with extreme views to be exempted from the new law on the basis of religion.

In the Lords, the bill was changed to allow criticism of 'sexual conduct and practice' in the name of free speech. However, the government have voiced their determination to get the bill on the statute books.

Ministers are urging members of the Lords to bow to the wishes of the Government.

Justice Minister Lord Bach said:
"There must come a point where this House, with all its great virtues, gives way to the House that has been elected by the people of this country."

But Lord Waddington, who inserted the 'free-speech' defence in the law against religious hatred, said that the changes must stay if the peers wanted to maintain consistency.

Lord Waddington said:
"If we are to finish up with a free speech clause in the religious hatred offence but no free speech clause here, we're simply asking for trouble."

Lord Smith, the first openly gay MP,  said he believed that the changes proposed by the Lords could lead to more attacks on LGBT people.

LGBT Labour co-chair Katie Hanson said:
"The Government's protection from homophobic hatred is a important right for lesbians and gay men - and so we are very disappointed that the new law will have an exemption in it for people on the basis of religious views. We do not want to let this rest. We will be urging the Government to re-visit this law in the new session of Parliament and finally scrap this amendment from the Lords - to make sure there are no exceptions to protection from homophobic hatred."

Gay Brighton & Hove Lib Dem Councillor Paul Elgood said:
"The unelected Tory peers must not be able to frustrate the will of the elected Commons, who have clearly expressed their position by voting to protect the rights of groups such as the LGBT community, who are at risk from hate crimes.

"This comes at a time when homophobic hate crime is at the top of the agenda.  Have these Tories not been listening?  Instead they continue to spout their bigoted opinions under the veil of freedom of speech.  What about our rights to live our lives with the fear of harassment and violence?"

A number of comedians have also criticised the original bill believing that it could lead to them being arrested over jokes performed in the course of their acts.

Phelim Mac Cafferty, National Spokesperson for LGBTGreens said:
“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.”