The High Court ruled that a transsexual prisoner serving life for offences (including rape) committed while she was a man had the right to be transferred to a women's jail.
Source: R (on the application of AB) v Secretary of State for Justice and Governor of HMP Manchester, High Court 4 September 2009
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Sep
A new book examined key conceptual and operational issues surrounding hate crime. It considered whether hate crimes were motivated exclusively by hate; whether they were intended as 'message' crimes, designed to intimidate fellow members of the victim's minority group; and which types of people were responsible for committing hate crimes.
Source: Neil Chakraborti and Jon Garland, Hate Crime: Impact, causes and responses, SAGE Publications Ltd (020 7324 8500)
Links: Summary | Leicester University press release
Date: 2009-Jul
A report examined the perceptions and experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people towards homophobic hate crime and policing in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland police service had made substantial progress in gaining the co-operation of the LGB community: but there were still high levels of homophobic hate crime throughout Northern Ireland, and low levels of reporting.
Source: John O'Doherty, Perceptions and Experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People Towards Homophobic Hate Crime and Policing in Northern Ireland, Rainbow Project (028 9031 9030)
Links: Report | Rainbow press release | NIPB press release
Date: 2009-Jun
Researchers sought to develop reliable estimates of the size, growth, and geographic distribution of the transgender community.
Source: Bernard Reed, Stephenne Rhodes, Pieta Schofield and Kevan Wylie, Gender Variance in the UK: Prevalence, incidence, growth and geographic distribution, Gender Identity Research and Education Society (01372 801554)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jun
The Scottish Parliament approved a Bill to extend hate crime laws to cover disabled people and those from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual communities.
Source: Patrick Harvie MSP, Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Bill, TSO, available from Blackwell's Bookshop (0131 622 8283) | Scottish Parliament Official Report, Debate 3 June 2009, columns 18098-18126, TSO
Links: Text of Bill | MSP debate | SG press release | SAMH press release | Capability Scotland press release
Date: 2009-Jun
A literature review examined the experiences of children of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents.
Source: The Experiences of Children with Lesbian and Gay Parents: An initial scoping review of evidence, Scottish Government (web publication only)
Links: Literature review | Christian Institute press release
Date: 2009-Apr
An article said that health and social care organizations should seek to engage with the social networks of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered people, through monitoring and other measures, in order to meet their needs more effectively.
Source: Bob Cant, 'Legal outcomes: reflections on the implications of LGBT legal reforms in the UK for health and social care providers', Diversity in Health and Care, Volume 6 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Mar
The government published the first annual report on hate crime, bringing together information on the performance of the Crown Prosecution Service in prosecuting racist and religious hate crime, transphobic and homophobic crime, disability incidents, and domestic violence.
Source: Hate Crime Report 2007-2008, Crown Prosecution Service (020 7796 8000)
Links: Report | Pink News report | Womensgrid report
Date: 2009-Feb