Marriage Equality Became Effective in England, Wales, and Scotland. Northern Ireland Remained the Only Part of the UK Yet to Introduce Marriage Equality
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United Kingdom Marriage equality became effective in England, Wales, and Scotland. Northern Ireland remained the only part of the UK yet to introduce marriage equality. New government education policies were put in place. Regrettably, LGBTI people continued to experience hate crime, below-average access to public services (including healthcare) and suffered from government cuts to public services and civil society more than the general public. Activists also made progress towards greater equality in the territories of Guernsey, Jersey, and Gibraltar. 170 ILGA-Europe Annual Review 2015 Access to goods and services l Asylum authorities sent individuals back to countries l Donna Edmunds (UKIP, UK Independence Party, hostile to LGBTI people in several cases, including a nationalist populist), councillor in Lewes and European lesbian woman from Uganda, and a bisexual man from Parliament election candidate, said that business owners Jamaica. should be able to refuse customers based on their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or any other Bias-motivated speech characteristics. She “expressed regrets” under pressure l Several UKIP councillors, Northern Irish Assembly from her party, and UKIP said it didn’t endorse her views. Members, and Members of the European Parliament l NGO Stonewall undertook joint research with a made biased remarks related to homosexuality. Councillor funeral company, surveying 522 LGB people about access David Silvester was suspended, but others remained in to funeral care and later-life planning. They found that their post. 24% of respondents expected to face barriers when l The Home Office denied a visa to Ugandan singer planning a funeral. Bobi Wine due to some of his songs calling for gay men to l Buying or accessing goods or services occasionally be burned, leading to the cancellation of two shows. proved difficult. A bakery in Northern Ireland turned down a customer’s request to bake a cake featuring a Bias-motivated violence slogan in favour of equal marriage, citing the owner’s l The (London) Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime religious beliefs. The Equality Commission for Northern issued a report in December, which showed crimes Ireland offered a settlement but the bakery opted to go to motivated by the victim’s ethnicity, religion or sexual court. A London bus driver told a gay couple they were orientation had all risen. Homophobic hate crimes went “disgusting”, forcing them to get off. The company up by 22% since 2013, with over 100 offences recorded disciplined the driver. A Stonewall Scotland survey also every month. found that 16% of respondents experienced poor l In Scotland, crimes motivated by homophobia rose to treatment in the previous three years when accessing a 890 in 2013–2014, compared to 729 in 2012–2013. Crimes public service in health and social care, housing, policing, motivated by transphobia also rose from 14 to 25 over the education or community support. same period. l Following a bakery’s refusal of sale (see above), DUP (Democratic Unionist Party, right-wing nationalist) Diversity Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly Paul Given l In January, LGBTI rights group Youth Chances introduced a Freedom of Conscience Bill to allow business published research into the life experience of 6,514 young owners to deny access to goods, services and facilities on LGBTQ people in England. Trans young people reported grounds of customers’ sexual orientation. LGBTI NGOs the lowest overall life satisfaction (only 38% said their life objected strongly. A public consultation on the proposal was “close to their ideal”), followed by LGBQ young remained open at the end of the year. people (47%). (51% among heterosexual non-trans respondents.) Asylum l The Home Office ordered a review of interviews in Education cases linked to asylum-seekers’ sexual orientation, l Several governmental initiatives sought to address which found that “over a tenth of interviews did homophobia and transphobia in schools: in England and contain questions of an unsatisfactory nature”. The Wales, the Crown Prosecution Service launched a lesson Home Office accepted most of the review’s plan and a DVD for teachers to tackle homophobic and recommendations. transphobic bullying; and Secretary of State for Education ILGA-Europe Annual Review 2015 171 Nicky Morgan announced a GBP 2m (EUR 2.6m) package Equality and non-discrimination to fund innovative not-for-profit campaigns against l In October, Secretary of State for Justice Chris LGBT-phobic bullying in schools. In Scotland, the Grayling (Conservative) said that if his party won the 2015 government issued new guidance on sex education to general election, it would seek to withdraw from the reflect the introduction of same-sex marriage. European Court of Human Rights, and instead introduce a l In May, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby sent Bill of Rights outside of the Council of Europe’s oversight. guidance to all Church of England schools, calling on Numerous human rights NGOs, as well as the Labour and educators not to “turn a convenient blind eye” to Liberal Democrat parties, criticised the suggestion. homophobic bullying, and reminding them of the l In a July cabinet reshuffle, Nicky Morgan “terrible impact” it has on children. (Conservative) was granted responsibility for equality l In July, Stonewall released a survey of 1,832 teachers issues. Several journalists and equality NGOs questioned and school staff nationwide. It found that 86% of this choice; she has since spoken at several LGBT events, secondary school teachers had witnessed homophobic announcing she has changed her mind and now supports bullying, but fewer than 17% were trained to tackle it. same-sex marriage. l MP Michael Fabricant (Conservative) said the Employment government must review its current discriminatory policy l In February, the Employment Appeal Tribunal on blood donation. The policy states that gay and overturned a 2013 decision in the case Walker v Innospec, bisexual men must have been celibate for 12 months ruling instead that private pension schemes weren’t before donating blood. Mr Fabricant highlighted that obliged to pay the same benefits to survivors from “promiscuous” heterosexual men were under no such same-sex couples as to those from different-sex couples. restriction. The government published a report on this discrimination in June, but didn’t commit to ending it. Family l In April, Anglican hospital chaplain Jeremy Pemberton l Equal marriage legislation came into force in England married his long-term partner. In June, the acting bishop and Wales (March) and Scotland (December, after the of Southwell and Nottingham revoked Mr Pemberton’s Scottish Parliament adopted the reform in February with chaplain licence, and Mr Pemberton said he would take an overwhelming majority). Marriages contracted abroad the Church to an employment tribunal. In July, Lord became fully recognised, and couples will be able to Norman Fowler (Conservative) raised the case in the convert existing civil partnerships into marriages. House of Lords, asking that the government “help (Partnerships will remain available, but to same-sex reconcile the difficulties” between the Church and their couples only.) In Northern Ireland, the Executive LGB employees. maintained its opposition to equal marriage for the l In May, the Church of Scotland General Assembly region, and in April the Northern Ireland Assembly approved by 369 votes to 189 a proposal allowing people rejected a motion by Sinn Féin (Republican, left-wing) to who are in (sexually active) same-sex civil partnerships to introduce equal marriage with 43 votes in favour and 51 be trained and appointed as ministers. The proposal against. (This was the third such motion in 18 months.) remained under discussion at the end of the year. l Rights groups in the Channel Islands increased their l An appeal court ruled that a trans woman couldn’t work. In May, LGBTI group Liberate met Guernsey Chief retroactively benefit from the female age of pension (60, Minister Jonathan Le Tocq, who committed to proposing while 65 for men), because a legal gender recognition a law on civil unions, allowing any couple to enter a certificate cannot be issued to a married person who does state-sanctioned union, and have it celebrated religiously not want to annul their marriage. in agreement with faith leaders. In Jersey, local Home 172 ILGA-Europe Annual Review 2015 Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand called for a review into Survey. It found that LGB individuals were up to 50% more the impact of same-sex marriage, seeking to delay likely to report negative experiences in healthcare, parliamentary discussions. The island’s first Pride march including discrimination. was organised in response, which the press said l Professional bodies including the UK Council for “hundreds” attended. Jersey’s Assistant Chief Minister Psychotherapy, the British Psychoanalytic Council and the Philip Ozouf, the island’s only openly gay politician, Royal College of Psychiatrists unanimously condemned supported demands for equal marriage but explained the ‘conversation therapies’ to ‘change’ a patient’s sexual issue was “not simple”, due to religious opposition. In orientation. November, the Chief Minister committed to allowing same-sex marriage in Jersey by the end of 2017. Human rights defenders l The Parliament in Gibraltar adopted a local Civil l The Queen’s New Year Honours list decorated four Partnership Act, allowing both same-sex and different-sex LGBTI activists for their work, including Nigel Warner, couples to enter a union with the same rights as marriage, ILGA-Europe’s Council of Europe adviser. including adoption. l London Metropolitan University published new l In July, the United Reformed Church’s General research in September, which showed that “LGBT Assembly failed to agree on whether to allow same-sex voluntary and community sector organisations had taken couples to wed religiously under their auspices. The a real and significant hit” since 2010, with a consistent General Secretary reported that “a clear majority” was in income fall of 9%, public funding having decreased 34%, favour, but the Church required full consensus.