How we spent your money last year

• Stonewall has spent the last 12 months campaigning to include legal protections on incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation in the Criminal Justice Bill. We should know in the next coming months if it’ll become law. And although our political friends are working hard on our behalf to bring about equality, we couldn’t do it without the help of supporters like you.
  
• These protections aren’t about stopping people telling jokes. In fact, they are about extremism – such as extreme rap lyrics calling for gay people to be attacked or murdered. We refuse to accept there is no link between this and the epidemic of anti-gay violence disfiguring Britain’s streets.
  
• It’ll be a tough battle with our traditional opponents in the House of Lords, but we remain determined to secure complete equality in the criminal law.
• Our ongoing campaigns to stamp-out homophobic hate-crime and bullying (see below). This year’s money will help us to move on to the next stage of these vital, nationwide campaigns.

Why we still need your support

Keeping us safe

• Lesbian and gay people don’t report homophobic hate crime and incidents. We’re working with the Home Office to work out why this is, and what can be done to make things better. In the last year, 223 homophobic incidents were reported to Brighton & Hove Police. Count Me In Too, a survey by the University of Brighton and Spectrum, shows that only a quarter of respondents reported any of the hate crime incidents they had experienced. Stonewall will be working tirelessly on their campaign, with police, and the criminal justice system in general to make sure we all report incidents, and police take steps to stop them happening in the first place.

Education

• Our Education for All campaign tackles homophobia in Britain’s schools. Teaching young people about homophobia prevents the acts of violence we have already campaigned to outlaw.
• The ongoing campaign has seen some really innovative work taken into schools – including a theatre in education play, a bold ‘Some people are gay. Get over it!’ poster campaign, a short DVD and guidance for teachers – all designed to give education professionals more confidence in preventing and responding to homophobic bullying.
• Your money will help this campaign go from strength to strength