Women have been left out of Hate Crimes Bill
More legislation is needed to tackle misogyny across Scotland
WELL, it seems an awful lot of people hate the Hate Crimes Bill – except for the folk who passed it. Wild claims on both sides from where I’m sitting.
From the ScotGov, reassurance that it’s nothing much new, just a tidy up and a slight expansion of pre-existing “stirring up” laws. From the other side, squeals of horror suggesting the very legitimacy of free speech is under threat.
Wish me luck trying to steer a middle course through this bourach.
It IS true that there have been stirring up laws in England and Wales for many years, with no signs of any roofs falling in.
My problem lies in the phrasing that “a reasonable person” would think that the stirring up was intentional.
Reasonableness is in the ear of the beholder after all. Lots of football chants endeavour to stir up hatred; the question is whether that’s just force of habit, or whether they really do want the other lot to spill blood.
Social media has been alive, as ever, with unhelpful theories. And everyone, from J.K. Rowling to Ally McCoist, has felt able to unburden themselves on it.
My regret is that all the socalled ‘protected categories’ name checked don’t include women, who very certainly need
protected even if, as 52 per cent of humankind, they hardly qualify as a minority.
Our government says standalone legislation on misogyny will be along in a wee while, though nobody feels able to define either ‘wee’ or ‘while’.
It’s now two years last month since Helena Kennedy completed a rather alarming report into
how prevalent misogyny still was in the big wide Scottish world. And almost 10 months since the public consultation on her report was done and dusted.
Most women are more than a wee thing irritated finding themselves at the back of yet another queue.
Most women would like their parliament to get on and cough up the promised law. Because
most men don’t scurry home after dark clutching keys threaded through fearful fingers in case of stranger danger.
Most trans folk would like to get on with their complicated enough lives without becoming a political football between warring tribes.
Most decent folk understand all that.