“People are still facing abuse and prejudice every day” – Hate crime awareness in Salford

image credit: Michael Fleshman, Flikr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

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Last week commenced the beginning of Anti-Hate Crime Awareness Week. 

The Salford community came together and partook in the movement to tackle the causes and issues surrounding hate crime.They did this whilst spreading awareness of its impact on many marginalised groups of people in Greater Manchester.

In fact, according to commons library UK Parliament police records, 114,958 hate crime offenses were recorded in the UK and Wales in 2021, which has risen by 12% since 2020 .
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Hate crimes can be motivated by a variety of different factors, most commonly: race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity.

The movement aims to highlight the issue of hate crime is in society, and how we can prevent it.

Brian Boag, a member of the Greater Manchester LGBTQ+ advisory panel, spoke about the effects of Hate- crime and what we need to do to spread awareness of this.

He shared: “In the past few years, there has been a lot more incidences of homophobia and a big increase in transphobic attacks and transphobic abuse.

“I don’t know if it is getting any better, there just seems to be a lot more hate crime that Greater Manchester police are having to put a lot more effort into because it is becoming more prevalent.

“It’s not just physical violence, it’s about things like the gay pay gap, for example”.

In fact, hate crimes based on sexual orientation have doubled in the past four years. This month also commenced LGBTQ+ awareness month looking at the implications homophobia and hate crime, has on the community.

Boag said: “In city centres, there’s probably more tolerance, but again if you go outside, people are still facing abuse and prejudice every single day”.

Greater Manchester’s panel aims to tackle discrimination against minority groups and to promote inclusivity: “The idea is that the combined authorities in the Greater Manchester area have a sound response towards the diverse community within Greater Manchester”.

“We are tasked with going out and working with the local community on some of these issues and see what we can give to the Greater Manchester authority about how to do it”.

Boag is one of 13 members of the panel advocating for diversity in Greater Manchester and expressed the whole team’s support: “I think that’s the real commitment of Greater Manchester and it’s not just Andy Burnham, you know there’s a real commitment from all the local politicians to make Manchester somewhere we’re all proud of, where we’re proud to be who we want to be and who we are”.

Salford city mayor Paul Dennett shared his support for the anti- hate crime movement on Twitter, he said: “No one should face hate, violence or abuse because of who they are, love or look like, where they’re from or what they believe”.

For more information about identifying and reporting hate crimes, visit Salford.gov.uk/hatecrime

Image credit: Michael Fleshman, Flikr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/