Hate Crime Awareness Week – 12 – 19 October

This year the theme of Hate Crime Awareness Week is “in solidarity with those affected by homophobic hate crime targeted towards the LGBT+ community”. 

Manchester Pride have organised a Community Session on Hate Crime Awareness on 22 October from 6.00pm to 8.00pm at The Proud Place.

Join a panel of expert speakers to understand topics such as: What is a hate crime? What do I do if I experience a hate crime? How do I support someone who has experienced a hate crime?

Book your free space here.

The number of reported hate crimes against LGBT+ people in England and Wales has dropped slightly in the past year but campaigners say the figures are still “deeply worrying”.

New research published by the government on 10 October, showed that hate crimes based on a person’s sexual orientation dropped by eight per cent in the year 2023-2024, compared with 2022-2023, while transphobic hate crime fell by two per cent.

In the year ending March 2024, there were 22,839 reported hate crimes involving a person’s sexual orientation, and 4,780 transphobic crimes.

These are still record-high numbers in comparison to previous years, and only account for the tip of the iceberg, particularly when underreporting is taken into account. How many times have you been called a fag, a dyke, or a nonce in the street and dismissed it as part of daily life? These are hate crimes – and even if you didn’t report them, it puts into context just how bad the situation still is in the UK. 

Meanwhile, we should be vigilant that the fight back out of this is long from over.

The Home Office defines a hate crime as “any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic.”

Those characteristics include race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, and gender identity.

Anyone who has witnessed or experienced a hate crime is urged to call the police on 101, Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or visit the True Vision website. In an emergency, always dial 999.

The Age of Consent 

The Age of Consent is the debut album by British band Bronski Beat (Steve Bronski, Larry Steinbachek and Jimmy Somerville), released on London Records on 15 October 1984.

By 1984, many European countries had reduced the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16, but it remained at 21 in the United Kingdom, having only been partially decriminalised in 1967. Homosexuality was not ‘legalised’ in Scotland, where Somerville was born, until 1981. The wording of the legislation to decriminalise also included wording that placed restrictions such as making illegal the use of a hotel room for sex. Homosexuality was further stigmatised beyond the restrictions placed on homosexual individuals, and homophobia was a danger to gay individuals.

Against this background, Bronski, Steinbachek, and Somerville met in Brixton in 1983, and soon formed Bronski Beat. They signed a recording contract with London Records in 1984 after doing only nine live gigs.

The album was produced by Mike Thorne; the recording sessions took place in London and New York City.

The inner sleeve of the album has a table listing the minimum age for lawful homosexual relationships between men in each country in Europe, accompanied by the telephone number of a service giving gay legal advice. It was removed from the United States release of the album on the basis of “past sensitivities of several record store chains”.

The band’s debut single – “Smalltown Boy” – was released on 25 May 1984, peaking at number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in June, and reaching number one in Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. It is a poetically poignant, soul searching composition addressing homophobia, loneliness and family misunderstanding. It perfectly encapsulates the experience of being young and gay in the ’80s.

It was accompanied by a video of Jimmy Somerville with fellow band member friends Larry Steinbachek and Steve Bronski, who, while cruising at a public swimming pool and changing room, are attacked and beaten up by a gang of homophobes. Somerville is returned to his family by the police; he leaves home alone and has a reunion with friends Steinbachek and Bronski, travelling to a new life on a train.

The band had the telephone number of the London Gay Switchboard (telephone support and information for gays and lesbians in central London) etched into the inner groove of the 12″ vinyl version.

Listen to Smalltown Boy here.

Podcasts: Coming Out Stories

Coming Out Stories will take you to one the most important moments in many people’s lives. It will perch you on sofas in suburban sitting rooms, stand you in front of officials’ desks, put you at the centre of a crowd in a noisy classroom, everywhere where these conversations have happened.

Listen here.

Podcast: The Most Important Conversations Happen in Bed

Across 50 years of bedsheets, the love story of two extraordinary women unfolds against the backdrop of evolving LGBTQ+ rights in Britain. The romance between wild-hearted Margo and shrinking violet Lucille twists and turns as the political debate around queer love transforms from aversion to acceptance over the decades.

Queer female stories and longstanding lesbian relationships are rarely seen or heard in the media. This drama is quietly radical in its intimate depiction of two women’s personal lives revolutionised by the outside world’s changing relationship to queer love. The play asks – is love enough to weather the storm of conflicting political debate?

Lie your head on the same pillow as Margo and Lucille as they have the most important conversations of their lives in the privacy of their bed, laying bare the dreams, frustrations and secrets they dare not speak in public.

Cast:
Margo (17 years) …….. Tamara Brabon
Lucille (17 years) ……… Laura Marcus
Margo (29/40 years) …….. Lucy Ellinson
Lucille (29/40 years) ……… Kelly Hotten
Margo (66 years) …….. Cara Chase
Lucille (66 years) ……… Alexandra Mathie

Written by Natasha Sutton Williams.

Listen here.

Mr Loverman

In a rare piece of drama that not only looks at a black, gay relationship, Mr Loverman also follows the life of elder gays in a relationship in a TV adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s 2013 best-selling novel.

The eight-part drama starts on Monday (14 October) on BBC One at 9.00pm. Mr Loverman follows Barrington Jedidiah Walker, who is known around town as a suave and charismatic elder. Barrington known as Barry to his mates, is a 74-year-old, Antiguan-born, exuberant Hackney personality, renowned for his dapper taste and fondness for retro suits.

His wife has fears that he has been cheating on her with other women. But what she doesn’t know is that Barrington is having an affair with his best friend and soulmate Morris. In what has been described as “a life-affirming story about family, love, and being true to yourself”, viewers will be in for a treat with this series.