Plymouth Pride Forum

REPORTS

New reports coming soon!

Hate crime report - 2008 – 2009

The second Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) annual hate crime performance report was published in Jan 2010 and the report covers

a range of hate crime strands for 2008-09:

Racist and religious hate crime;
homophobic and transphobic hate crime; and
disability hate crime.

The Key findings regarding Homophobic and Transphobic crime are

In the four years ending in March 2009, over 3,400 defendants were prosecuted for homophobic or transphobic crimes;
over the same period, convictions rose from 71% to 81%;
guilty pleas increased from 58% to 67%;
the 2008-09 target was to reduce unsuccessful outcomes to 18%. Outcomes were outside the target at 20.8% by the fourth quarter,
acquittals and essential legal element missing accounted for the majority of unsuccessful outcomes
while the number of unsuccessful outcomes due to victim difficulties increased from 2006-07 to 2008-09, they fell slightly in proportional terms, from 5% to less than 4%;
the majority of defendants were men (86%);
offences against the person were the most common offences;
78% of defendants were identified as belonging to the White British category.

To see the full report Click http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/CPS_hate_crime_report_2009.pdf

Leagues Behind

http://www.stonewall.org.uk/documents/leagues_behind.pdf

This research a survey of over 2,000 football fans from across Britain and interviews with football insiders and lesbian and gay players finds that anti-gay abuse in the sport has been witnessed by seven in ten football fans.

Three in five fans believe that anti-gay abuse from fans dissuades gay players from coming out
Almost two thirds of fans believe football would be a better sport if anti-gay abuse was eradicated
Two thirds of fans would feel comfortable if a player at their club came out

The report’s recommendations include ensuring that sanctions used against fans who perpetuate anti-gay abuse and violence are consistent with those for racial abuse

The Teachers' Report ( 2009) :Teachers' perspective on homophobic bullying in Britain's primary and secondary schools

Some of the findings of this report were that : Nine in ten secondary school teachers and more than two in five primary school teachers say children and young people, regardless of their sexual orientation, currently experience homophobic bullying, name calling or harassment in their schools Secondary school teachers say that homophobic bullying is the second most frequent form of bullying after bullying because of weight and three times more prevalent than bullying due to religion or ethnicity.

Nine in ten teachers and non-teaching staff at secondary and primary schools have never received any specific training on how to prevent and respond to homophobic bullying 28 % of secondary school staff would not feel confident in supporting a pupil who decided to come out to them as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Two in five would not feel confident in providing pupils with information, advice and guidance on lesbian and gay issues

To read the full report visit the Stonewall website http://www.stonewall.org.uk/education_for_all/research/2525.asp

The double glazed- Glass Ceiling : Stonewall : Oct 2008

Sadly many women have experienced the glass ceiling as an aspect of their careers but a new study by Stonewall has shown that for lesbians it’s double glazed as well. The report found that many of Britain’s two million lesbians are far less visible in the workplace than their gay male colleagues and out gay women see few if any role models in high-level positions. It also found that women felt that their identity as a woman, and being able to achieve their potential was of greater concern than the need to be accepted as a gay woman. When considering the advantages of being out at work and some women said taking a "proactive and assertive" approach allowed them a greater degree of control over how colleagues responded to them whilst others found that being out allowed them to sidestep feminine conventions and it empowered them to engage with men as equals. The report concludes that many women feel LGBT networks are male dominated and that they don’t appeal to them.

Interestingly there are no known lesbian directors of FTSE100 companies and only one out Lesbian parliamentarian.

To read the full The Double Glazed-Glass Ceiling visit www.stonewall.org.uk/workplace/2430.asp

Prescription for Change: Stonewall- 2008

the biggest survey of its kind ever conducted outside America, which offers new statistics on the mental health, drinking and drug use of lesbian and bisexual women in Britain in 2008 and considered the views of 6,000 lesbian and bisexual respondents across the UK and suggests that health services are failing to identify specific healthcare needs among Britain's 1.8 million lesbian population

Some of its Key findings were :

More than one in five lesbian and bisexual women in Wales have deliberately harmed themselves in the last year, compared to 0.4% of the general UK population.
Over thirty five % drink three times a week or more compared to a quarter of women in general.
More than 1 in 4 lesbian and bisexual women in Wales say that they have or have been told that they have an eating problem, compared to 1 in 20 of the general UK population
Almost fifteen per cent of lesbian and bisexual women over 25 in Wales - almost double the number of women in general - have never had a cervical smear test
Only 51 per cent have had a cervical smear test in the last 3 years, compared to 70% of the women in the UK.

The School report: The experiences of young gay people in Britain’s schools: Stonewall: 2007

This report found that Homophobic bullying was at almost endemic in Britain's schools and amongst its findings were:

Almost two thirds (65 %) of young lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils have experienced direct bullying. And 75% of young gay people attending faith schools
Even if gay pupils are not directly experiencing bullying, they are learning in an environment where homophobic language and comments are commonplace.
98% of young gay people hear the phrases “that’s so gay” or “you’re so gay” in school, and over
97% of pupils hear other insulting homophobic remarks, such as “poof”, “dyke”, “rug-muncher”, “queer” and “bender”.
Less than a quarter (23 %) of young gay people have been told that homophobic bullying is wrong in their school.
Over half of lesbian and gay pupils don’t feel able to be themselves at school.

To make Plymouth a place, where LGBT people can live and work; without prejudice and without fear.