History of violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom

The history of violence against LGBT people in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

is made up of assaults on gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

ed, queer

Queer

Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...

and intersex

Intersex

Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...

ed individuals (LGBTQI), legal responses to such violence, and hate crime

Hate crime

In crime and law, hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her perceived membership in a certain social group, usually defined by racial group, religion, sexual orientation, disability, class, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, social status or...

statistics in the United Kingdom. Those targeted by such violence are perceived to violate heteronormative

Heteronormativity

Heteronormativity is a term invented in 1991 to describe any of a set of lifestyle norms that hold that people fall into distinct and complementary genders with natural roles in life. It also holds that heterosexuality is the normal sexual orientation, and states that sexual and marital relations...

rules and contravene perceived protocols of gender

Gender role

Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...

and sexual roles. People who are perceived to be LGBTQI may also be targeted.

A hate crime

Hate crime

is simply defined as when individuals become victimized because of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation. Hate crimes against LGBTQI people often occur because the perpetrators are homophobic

Homophobia

Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...

. Violence targeted at people because of their perceived sexuality can be psychological and physical up to and including murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

. These actions may be caused by cultural, religious, or political mores

Mores, in sociology, are any given society's particular norms, virtues, or values. The word mores is a plurale tantum term borrowed from Latin, which has been used in the English language since the 1890s....

and biases.

Prior to 1900

The first English law against homosexuality was the Buggery Act 1533

Buggery Act 1533

The Buggery Act 1533, formally An Acte for the punysshement of the vice of Buggerie , was an Act of the Parliament of England that was passed during the reign of Henry VIII...

, which made homosexuality punishable by death; typically hanging

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

. It was established during the reign of Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

, and was the first civil legislation applicable against sodomy in the country, such offences having previously been dealt with by ecclesiastical court

Ecclesiastical court

An ecclesiastical court is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages in many areas of Europe these courts had much wider powers than before the development of nation states...

s. The law defined buggery

Buggery

The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may be, also, a specific common law offence, encompassing both sodomy and bestiality.-In law:...

as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

and man. This was later defined by the courts to include only anal penetration

Anal sex

Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...

and bestiality.R v Jacobs (1817) Russ & Ry 331 confirmed that buggery related only to intercourse per anum
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...

by a man with a man or woman, or intercourse per anum or per vaginam by either a man or a woman with an animal. Other forms of "unnatural intercourse" may amount to indecent assault

Indecent assault

Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in many jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime.Indecent assault was an offence in England and Wales under sections 14 and 15 the Sexual Offences Act 1956...

or gross indecency

Gross indecency

Gross indecency is a UK and Canadian legal term of art which was used in the definition of the following criminal offences:*Gross indecency between men, contrary to section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 and later contrary to section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956.*Indecency with a...

, but do not constitute buggery (see generally: Smith & Hogan, Criminal Law (10th ed.) ISBN 0 406 94801 1)

The Act was repealed by section 1 of the Offences against the Person Act 1828

Offences Against the Person Act 1828

The Offences against the Person Act 1828 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act...

(9 Geo.4 c.31) and by section 125 of the Criminal Law (India) Act 1828 (c.74). It was replaced by section 15 of the Offences against the Person Act 1828

Offences Against the Person Act 1828

, and section 63 of the Criminal Law (India) Act 1828, which provided that buggery would continue to be a capital offence.

Buggery remained a capital offence in England and Wales until the enactment of the Offences against the Person Act 1861

Offences Against The Person Act 1861

The Offences against the Person Act 1861 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It consolidated provisions related to offences against the person from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act...

; the last execution for the crime took place in 1836. However, male homosexual acts still remained illegal and were punishable by imprisonment and in 1885 section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885

Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885

The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 , or "An Act to make further provision for the Protection of Women and Girls, the suppression of brothels, and other purposes", was the latest in a 25-year series of legislation in the United Kingdom beginning with the Offences against the Person Act 1861 that...

extended the laws regarding homosexuality to include any kind of sexual activity between males. Lesbians were never acknowledged or targeted by legislation.

1900-1967

Into the 1900s, homosexual activity remained illegal and punishable by imprisonment. In the early 1950s the police actively enforced laws prohibiting sexual behaviour between men. This policy led to a number of high-profile arrests and trials. One of those involved the noted scientist, mathematician, and war-time code-breaker Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...

(1912–1954), convicted in 1952 of "gross indecency". Turing was given a choice between imprisonment or probation conditional on his agreement to undergo hormonal

Hormone

A hormone is a chemical released by a cell or a gland in one part of the body that sends out messages that affect cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. In essence, it is a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one...

treatment designed to reduce libido

Libido

Libido refers to a person's sex drive or desire for sexual activity. The desire for sex is an aspect of a person's sexuality, but varies enormously from one person to another, and it also varies depending on circumstances at a particular time. A person who has extremely frequent or a suddenly...

. He accepted chemical castration

Chemical castration

Chemical castration is the administration of medication designed to reduce libido and sexual activity, usually in the hope of preventing rapists, child molesters and other sex offenders from repeating their crimes...

via oestrogen hormone injections.

Far-less well-known individuals were also victims of the law and of violent crime perpetrated by their fellow countrymen. On July 31, 1950 in Rotherham, an English schoolteacher, Kenneth Crowe, aged 37, was found dead wearing his wife's clothes and a wig. He had approached a miner on his way home from the pub, who upon discovering Crowe was male, beat and strangled him. John Cooney was found not guilty of murder and sentenced to five years for manslaughter.

In response to the violence and unfair treatment of gay men, the Sexual Offences Act 1967

Sexual Offences Act 1967

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom . It decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men, both of whom had to have attained the age of 21. The Act applied only to England and Wales and did not cover the Merchant Navy or the Armed Forces...

was passed. It maintained the general prohibitions on buggery and indecency between men, but provided for a limited decriminalisation of homosexual acts where three conditions were fulfilled. Those conditions were that the act had to be consensual, take place in private and involve only people that had attained the age of 21. This was a higher age of consent than that for heterosexual acts, which was set at 16. Further, "in private" limited participation in an act to two people. This condition was interpreted strictly by the courts, which took it to exclude acts taking place in a room in a hotel, for example, and in private homes where a third person was present (even if that person was in a different room).

The 1967 Act extended only to England and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, and not to Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, the Channel Islands

Channel Islands

The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...

or the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, where all homosexual behaviour remained illegal.

1989–1990: West London murders

Towards the end of 1989 and the start of 1990, there were a series of unsolved murders in west London over a period of six months.

In September 1989, Christopher Schliach, a barrister who was gay, was murdered in his home; he was stabbed more than 40 times. Three months later, Henry Bright, a hotelier who was gay, was also stabbed to death at his home. A month later, William Dalziel, a hotel porter who was gay, was found unconscious on a roadside in Acton, west London. He died from severe head injuries. Three months after this, actor Michael Boothe was murdered in west London (see below 2007 Met review).

In July 1990, following these murders, hundreds of lesbians and gay men marched from the park where Boothe had been killed to Ealing town hall and held a candlelit vigil. The demonstration led to the formation of OutRage

Outrage

Outrage may refer to:* Outrage! , a board game* OutRage!, a UK LGBT-rights direct-action group* Tort of outrage, in law, an alternative term for intentional infliction of emotional distress- Film and television :...

, who called for the police to start protecting gay men instead of arresting them. In September 1990, lesbian and gay police officers established the Lesbian and Gay Police Association

Gay Police Association

The Gay Police Association is a British police staff association with members in all 52 UK police forces. The GPA was founded in 1990 as LAGPA , and represents the needs and interests of gay and bisexual police officers and police staff in the United Kingdom...

(Lagpa/GPA).

1999: The Admiral Duncan pub bombing

In May 1999, the Admiral Duncan

Admiral Duncan pub

The Admiral Duncan is a pub in Old Compton Street, Soho in the heart of London's gay district. It is named after Admiral Adam Duncan, who defeated the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797.- Bombing :...

, a gay pub in Soho

Soho

Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...

was bombed by former British National Party member David Copeland

David Copeland

David John Copeland is a former member of the British National Party and the National Socialist Movement, who became known as the "London Nail Bomber" after a 13-day bombing campaign in April 1999 aimed at London's black, Bangladeshi and gay communities.Over three successive weekends between 17...

, killing three people and wounding at least 70.

2002: CPS 'zero tolerance'

On the 27 Nov. 2002, the Crown Prosecution Service

Crown Prosecution Service

The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...

announced a 'zero tolerance' approach towards perpetrators of anti-gay offenses; this also covers transsexuals. Crimes considered 'homophobic' or 'transphobic' are to be assessed in a similar way to those considered racist (e.g. the victim regarding them as such). "There is no statutory definition of a homophobic or transphobic incident. However, when prosecuting such cases, and to help us to apply our policy on dealing with cases with a homophobic or transphobic element, we adopt the following definition: 'Any incident which is perceived to be homophobic or transphobic by the victim or by any other person.'”

2003: Criminal Justice Act

The Criminal Justice Act

Criminal Justice Act

Criminal Justice Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Canada relating to the criminal law...

2003 is passed, in which section 146 empowers courts in England and Wales to impose tougher sentences for offenses motivated or aggravated by the victim's sexual orientation.

2006: first prosecution for homophobic murder

On the 14th October 2005, London, Jody Dobrowski

Jody Dobrowski

‎Jody Dobrowski was a 24-year-old assistant bar manager who was murdered on Clapham Common in south London. On 14 October, at around midnight, he was beaten to death with punches and kicks by two men who believed him to be gay. Tests carried out at St...

was beaten to death on Clapham Common by two men who perceived him as being gay; Dobrowski was beaten so badly he had to be identified by his fingerprints. Thomas Pickford and Scott Walker were given life sentences in what was described as a 'homophobic murder' in June 2006. This was the first prosecution in England and Wales where Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 was used in sentencing the killers; this enabled the courts to impose a tougher sentence for offenses motivated or aggravated by the victim's sexual orientation, in this case a minimum of 30 years in prison.

2007: Metropolitan Police review

In July 2004 an independent inquiry into police procedures carried out by the independent Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Advisory Group for the Metropolitan Police was announced. In May 2007 the report for the independent review was released; it had examined how detectives had handled 10 murders of gay men or transsexuals. The report found that some police inquiries were hampered by lack of knowledge, reliance on unfounded stereotypes and personal prejudices; these problems were mirrored and exacerbated by media coverage. The review recognised that Scotland Yard's work with the gay, lesbian and transsexual communities and its investigative processes had improved significantly since the 1990s, but warned that more radical steps were needed. The cases reviewed, and the findings, included:

Actor Michael Boothe, in west London died in April 1990, beaten to death by a gang of up to six men close to a public lavatory. The police said he had been the victim of "an extraordinarily severe beating, of a merciless and savage nature". He managed to give a description of his attackers before he died, and a reward of £15,000 was offered, but no one was caught, and the crime remains unsolved. The police review identified institutional homophobia within the Metropolitan Police as a factor.
Colin Ireland
Colin Ireland
Colin Ireland is a British serial killer known as the "Gay Slayer" because he specifically murdered gay men. His victims were five men....

, age 43, who in 1993 was jailed for life for murdering five gay men. Ireland picked up the men at pubs in London, and then killed them in their own homes. A Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

review showed that Ireland's capture was hampered by institutional homophobia within the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

.
- Andrew Collier, a housing warden, aged 33, was one of Ireland's victims; the murder was classified as homophobic and linked with the death of Peter Walker, Ireland's first victim. The report said the police could have done more to warn the community of the links between the murders.
- Emanuel Spiteri, age 41, who was strangled to death in his flat in Catford by Ireland, after meeting in a pub in Earls Court, west London.
Robyn Brown, a 23-year-old transsexual prostitute, was found stabbed to death in her flat in London on February 28, 1997. The original report described her as being 23-year-old Gemma Browne, formerly James Darwin Browne. The case went cold for over ten years, but her killer, James Hopkins, was eventually caught; in January 2009 he was jailed for life. The report found that identifying her to the public using different names may have hampered attempts to connect with relevant communities.
Jaap Bornkamp, a 52 year old florist, was knifed in June 2000 in south-east London in a homophobic attack; the murder remains unsolved despite the police displaying 20 ft by 10 ft images of CCTV footage taken near the murder scene. He was attacked after leaving a night club, and the police are reported as saying there was no confrontation or argument, but that the attack was homophobic and unprovoked. The report found this case to have been a model of police good practice.
Geoffrey Windsor, 57, in south London died in June 2002 from head injuries in a park after he was beaten and robbed. The police said the murder was motivated by homophobia. A review of this and similar cases in the area highlighted poor policing due to institutional homophobia within the police, particularly in not taking previous attacks in the area more seriously.

2000–2010: Recent cases

Damilola Taylor

Damilola Taylor was a ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy who died in the United Kingdom. Several young boys were cleared of murder charges after a lengthy trial, and later two brothers were convicted of manslaughter....

was attacked by a local gang of youths on 27 November 2000 in Peckham, south London; he bled to death after being stabbed with a broken bottle in the thigh, which severed the femoral artery. The BBC, Telegraph, Guardian and Independent newspapers reported at the time that during the weeks between arriving in the UK from Nigeria and the attack he had been subjected to bullying and beating, which included homophobic remarks by a group of boys at his school. "The bullies told him that he was gay." He "may not have understood why he was being bullied at school, or why some other children taunted him about being 'gay' – the word meant nothing to him." He had to ask his mother what 'gay' meant, she said "Boys were swearing at him, saying lots of horrible words. They were calling him names." His mother had spoken about this bullying, but the teachers failed to take it seriously. "She said pupils had accused her son of being gay and had beaten him last Friday." Six months after the murder, his father said, "I spoke to him and he was crying that he was being bullied and being called names. He was being called 'gay'." In the New Statesman two years later, when there had still been no convictions for the crime, Peter Tatchell, gay human rights campaigner, said, "In the days leading up to his murder in south London in November 2000, he was subjected to vicious homophobic abuse and assaults," and asked why the authorities had ignored this before and after his death.

In July 2005, Lauren Harries

Lauren Harries

Lauren Charlotte Harries , is a British media personality. In childhood Harries was known as James, a purported "child prodigy" in the field of antiques, appearing on numerous television shows including Wogan...

, a transwoman, was attacked along with her father and brother in their home in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

by eight youths who shouted the word "tranny" while beating their victims. One youth pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to two years probation; his accomplices were not formally identified or charged.

In April 2006 a man was jailed for a homophobic attack on an openly gay Anglican priest. Rev Dr Barry Rathbone was sitting in a park in Bournemouth, Dorset when Martin Powell and his girlfriend approached and spoke to him. Rathbone informed them that it was a cruising area, then Powell produced a 3 foot (0.9144 m) metal baseball bat, called him a 'queer', and started to hit him.

On 25 July 2008, 18-year-old Michael Causer was attacked by a group of men at a party in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, and died from his injuries. It is alleged that he was killed because he was gay. On 23 October 2008, 23-year-old gay hairdresser

Hairdresser

Hairdresser is a term referring to anyone whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques...

Daniel Jenkinson was the victim of a homophobic attack in a Preston club. His attacker, Neil Bibby, also from Preston, was sentenced to 200 hours' unpaid work, a three-month weekend curfew

Curfew

A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...

, and ordered to pay £2,000 compensation

Damages

In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...

after he pleaded guilty to assault

Assault

In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...

. Daniel needed facial reconstruction surgery after the attack, and said he was too scared to go out in the city.

On March 3, 2009 in Bromley

London Borough of Bromley

The London Borough of Bromley is a London borough of south east London, England and forms part of Outer London. The principal town in the borough is Bromley.-Geography:...

, south London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, UK, 59 year old Gerry Edwards was stabbed to death by an assailant shouting homophobic abuse. His partner of over twenty years, 56 year old Chris Bevan, was also stabbed and admitted to hospital in a critical condition. The police dealing with the case said they had an open mind, but were treating it as a homophobic murder. Two men were subsequently arrested.

On the 15 May 2009, An English court found two football fans guilty of shouting homophobic chants at footballer Sol Campbell

Sol Campbell

Sulzeer Jeremiah "Sol" Campbell is an English footballer who is currently a free agent. A central defender, Campbell has played for Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Portsmouth, Notts County and Newcastle United, as well as the English national team.Born in East London to Jamaican parents, Campbell's...

during a match This was the first prosecution for indecent chanting in the UK. The police reported that up to 2,500 fans shouted chants at the match that included "Sol, Sol, wherever you may be, Not long now until lunacy, We won't give a fuck if you are hanging from a tree," the footballer commented "I felt totally victimised and helpless by the abuse I received on this day. It has had an effect on me personally". Three men and two boys were given cautions after the match.

In September 2009, 62 year old Ian Baynham was attacked outside South Africa House in Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

in London

London

by three youths shouting homophobic abuse. Joel Alexander and Ruby Thomas were found guilty of manslaughter at the Old Bailey

Old Bailey

The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

and sentenced to six and seven years imprisonment respectively. A third accomplice, Rachael Burke was found guilty of a lesser charge of affray

Affray

In many legal jurisdictions related to English common law, affray is a public order offence consisting of the fighting of two or more persons in a public place to the terror of ordinary people...

and sentenced to two years uimprisonment.

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