SNP could extend hate crime laws to offer trans people more protection
by Daniel Sanderson, Telegraph:
Scottish Government proposing new legal provisions to make it easier to prosecute those who engage in ‘conversion practices’.
SNP ministers are planning to extend Scotland’s controversial hate crime laws to offer more protections for transgender people.
Amid calls for the legislation to be scrapped after police were swamped with thousands of complaints within a week, the Scottish Government is proposing new legal provisions to make it easier to prosecute those who engage in “conversion practices”.
Under the planned overhaul, attempting to “change or suppress” a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation, even as part of an attempt to help that person, would become an “aggravator” in cases in which another crime was committed.
This would mean anyone convicted of another offence would face a harsher sentence, potentially on the basis of a single piece of evidence, if it could be shown that their actions were motivated by a desire to “convert” someone.
The proposal was included in a Scottish Government consultation that recently closed, and would be part of a wide-ranging ban on conversion therapy, which would be separate legislation to the hate crime law.
Read also: The SNP’s new hate crime law is wasting police time by Lisa Townsend, Conservative Home. Lisa Townsend is the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey.
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