31st October 2009

The Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, Ministers Maria Eagle and Chris Bryant and LGBT Labour joined thousands of people attended a candle-lit vigil in London's Trafalgar Square yesterday (30 October) to stand up against anti-gay hate crime.

The vigil followed the death of Ian Baynham who died earlier in October following a homophobic attack in the square. Vigils also took place in Manchester, Brighton and Norwich at the same time and there is one scheduled to happen in Liverpool on Sunday evening.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown sent a message of solidarity to the Trafalgar Square event. He said: “I give you my word today that resisting all forms of hate crime remains a top priority for the Labour government. The Home Office has recently issued a new Hate Crime Action plan to increase reporting, bring more perpetrators to justice and give better support to victims.

“Perhaps the cruelest impact of hate crime is the loneliness and fear which it inspires in the communities it targets. And so to defeat hate we need not just policies – but pride. That is what you are all showing this evening. So let us say as one that we stand together strong in our diversity and united in our determination that while the march towards equality may be long, nobody will ever have to travel the road alone.”

The Prime Minister’s statement was read out by Maria Eagle, the minister steering new hate crime legislation through parliament next week, which will help to protect gay people.

Openly-gay minister Chris Bryant also slammed Moir. He said: “Every single time somebody writes an article like that or preaches a sermon or makes a speech like that, what that does is put a little bit more poison into society and that’s what leads to the death of people like Ian Baynham and those people should be ashamed of themselves.”

At 9am everyone took part in a two-minute silence and heard a roll-call of homophobic hate crime victims from the last decade, read out by Sue Perkins.

They passed candles up to the area in the front of the stage where Sarah Brown also laid her candle. The words No To Hate were spelled out in the flickering lights.

The event was hosted by Sandi Toksvig and there were performances from the London Gay Symphonic Wind orchestra and from choirs from London, Brighton, Birmingham and Reading.

There was also a message of support from Harvey Milk’s nephew, Stewart Milk.

Picture is thanks to PinkPaper.com.