EQUALITY NETWORK - Your Rights

06/10/2009
Hate crime
Hate crime is defined as crime motivated by malice or ill will towards a social group. There is clear evidence of hate crime against LGBT people in Scotland. Scotland currently has the least progressive law on hate crime of any part of the UK, but that will change in a few months time. more

07/10/2009
Housing
The law provides tenants with certain rights and bans discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and transsexual identity. The law also protects homeowners in some circumstances and gives some protection to homeless people. more

19/03/2008
Myself and my partner (both female) would like to foster kids but from all I'm reading and being told it seems that same sex couples in scotland are not allowed to foster in this country. Is this still the case and if so, how can we challenge this and change it? Any advice would be welcome.
In Scotland, fostering is still covered by the Fostering of Children (Scotland) Regulations 1996. The regulations will change in early 2009 when the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act becomes law. The Scottish Government ran a consultation earlier this year on the old fostering regulations, to which the Equality Network responded in March 2008. more

The Your Rights section of the website provides information about the law, and other rights, relating to LGBT people in Scotland.

The law pages last checked and updated on 6th October 2009.
Other rights pages last checked and updated on 7th October 2009.
FAQs updated 19th March 2008.

We sometimes receive queries from members of our network on matters relating to law and rights. We are not able to provide advice, but we will where possible reply explaining our understanding of the law and rights that apply. We can often direct people to an advice agency that may be able to help. We treat such enquiries as confidential.

Where possible, we aim to post typical anonymous queries, and our replies, in the FAQs section of our website, so that others with similar queries can make use of the information.