Message from Ben Summerskill, chief executive
Last July, 18-year-old Michael Causer was viciously assaulted as he slept at the home of a friend's grandmother.
His battered body was dumped outside on the street. Just over a week later his family were forced to take the heartbreaking decision to switch off his life-support system but vowed that whoever had attacked him would be brought to justice. 'We won't let Micky be pushed aside because he was gay, never in a million years,' they bravely vowed.
A fortnight ago teenager Gavin Alker was cleared of murder and manslaughter at Liverpool Crown Court, even though witnesses testified that he'd hurled homophobic abuse at Michael as he brutally beat him. His accomplice James O'Connor admits murdering Mr Causer but denies it was motivated by homophobia. From the outset of this tragic case, Merseyside Police have treated it as a homophobic attack.
Responding after the verdict to how her son was portrayed in court, Michael's mum said, 'I want someone to explain to me how a lad who worked in an old people's home for free to try to bring some joy into their lives, who called bingo numbers, who volunteered. can be a thug. Michael was seven and a half stone, he couldn't have hurt a fly. He was dragged out of his bed at night. I am determined to fight this for him. I have to.'
Something we've been struck by throughout the case is the scant attention paid to it by the national media.
It's testament to the lack of seriousness with which these kinds of incidents are treated - they're simply not regarded as newsworthy. The BBC has reported every single murder of an adolescent in the past 18 months in this country as a national news story - yet not this one.
Michael's tragic death reminds us how much more work there's still to do to challenge the prejudice that still blights the lives of so many.
Stonewall will continue with our work to tackle homophobic hate crimes and our campaigning to challenge homophobia and anti-gay bullying in our schools. Our research reveals that one in five people lesbian or gay people have been the victim of a hate incident in the last three years. Two thirds of young lesbian, gay and bisexual people have experienced homophobic bullying at school. Hatred cannot be allowed to fester unchallenged.
We're currently lobbying politicians to back measures in the Coroners Bill to remove an unnecessary exemption from our newly passed incitement to hatred protections.
The exemption means a very small number of people of extreme views could exploit the loophole to avoid prosecution for stirring up hatred and violence against gay people. We'll keep you updated as the Bill passes through Parliament.
Pink Pasty NB:-Despite the Stonewall message, there are those within the LGBT community (as experienced in Cornwall) who are complicite in attempting to supress wider knowledge of institutional homophobic abuses & violations. In Cornwall we have experienced the problem of local media & LGBT groups reliant on government funding ignoring homophobically motivated institutional abuse of gay people by failing to investigate homophobic abuse of former homeless 15yr old Peter Midwood, the abuse carried out by identifiable & named Cornwall police officers & Cornwall social services. Institutional abuse of gay people, in particuar in Cornwall remains commonplace & complaintents attacked for raising awareness, even when incidents occuring just months, sometiomes weeks ago, are dismissed as 'historical' by those like Intercom Trust & Gay Cornwall who prefer not to know the reality of homophobic abuse still being carried out.
More recently have been the number of gay male suicides in Cornwall in 2008 & the level of protaganistic cause involvement of persistent & protected homophobic attitudes & practises of Cornwall police officers in actual and attempted gay male suicides.
Homophobia & the fear even of some homosexuals to challenge & combat protected homophobia are still prevelent within society
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