EQUALITY NETWORK - Policy

30/08/2007
European Commission consultation on discrimination law
Please answer this short survey by the European Commission, and help ban sexual orientation discrimination across Europe! more

01/10/2011
MacDonald Holyrood Hotel, Edinburgh
Working Together
This conference is about partnerships for trans and sexual orientation equality. more

01/04/2011
Information Project
Informed and Empowered LGBT Communities more

28/06/2011
The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill
Outlines the Equality Network’s work on the Scottish Government’s Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Bill. The bill is also known (rather inaccurately) as the “sectarianism” bill. more

08/10/2009
'Hearts and minds' - challenging prejudice
Research shows that although there is much less prejudice against LGBT people now than there was 20 years ago, a significant minority of the population still hold clearly prejudiced views, and believe that that prejudice against LGBT people is acceptable or justified. more

This section of our website gives details of the Equality Network's current priorities for improving legislation and national policies that affect LGBT people in Scotland.

This work is planned through consultation with LGBT people in Scotland. In working for change, we involve LGBT people in our network. We also consult regularly with partner organisations, such as other LGBT and equality organisations, including the other two national LGBT organisations Stonewall Scotland and LGBT Youth Scotland.

We would welcome feedback on any of the work described available here.

This section of the website was last updated on 8th October 2009.

There is a summary of some of the most important policy issues for LGBT people in our April 2007 manifesto 'Equality at Holyrood'. The articles below discuss key issues we are working on, in more detail.

The policy briefings section of the website includes our written submissions to the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Government and others.

08/10/2009
'Hearts and minds' - challenging prejudice
Research shows that although there is much less prejudice against LGBT people now than there was 20 years ago, a significant minority of the population still hold clearly prejudiced views, and believe that that prejudice against LGBT people is acceptable or justified. more

08/10/2009
Equality in national policy
This section outlines the Equality Network's priorities for 'mainstreaming' LGBT equality in national policy in Scotland. more

08/10/2009
Sexual offences law
Sexual offences law has been significantly improved over the past decade, but the law in this area continues to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The new Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009 will remove all this discrimination. more

07/10/2009
Parenting law
Same-sex couples in Scotland were until recently severely discriminated against by the laws on adoption, fostering and on fertility treatment. The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007, and new regulations on fostering of children, came into effect on 28th September 2009. Most of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 also came into effect in 2009. Those changes removed most of the discrimination from the law. The final parts of the 2008 Act are due to come into effect in April 2010. That will remove the remaining area of discrimination. more

21/07/2009
Equality Bill
The Equality Network supports the new Equality Bill currently being considered by the Westminster Parliament. The bill would to a large extent level up the protection the law gives from discrimination, to give LGBT people the same level of protection currently given on grounds of race, gender and disability. However, we think that the bill is not perfect, and could be improved. more

20/07/2009
Same-sex marriage / mixed-sex civil partnership
Scotland currently has a segregated family law system in which marriage is available only to mixed-sex couples, and civil partnership is available only to same-sex couples. The Equality Network believes that this segregation is discriminatory, and that marriage should be opened up to same-sex couples and civil partnership to mixed-sex couples. more

21/04/2009
Hate crime law
Hate crime against LGBT people is common. Scotland is the only part of the UK not to recognise this in legislation. but that will change when the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009 comes into effect. more

14/02/2009
Sexual orientation in the national Census 2011
The 2001 national Census in Scotland asked people about their gender, age, race, religion and disability, but not about their sexual orientation. Why is this equality 'strand' being treated differently from others? more

14/06/2006
Transgender Inclusion
Why include T in LGBT? more