As far as LGBT Rights enshrined
in law are concerned, it might surprise you to learn that they are actually
relatively recent in UK legal history. To be gay was actually illegal in the
United Kingdom until 1967, when homosexual activity was decriminalised in
England and Wales. However, it was still illegal to engage in homosexual acts
in Scotland until 1981 and in Northern Ireland until 1982.
From there, the LGBT community
wasn’t automatically assigned the same rights and protections that their
straight counterparts were. The Thatcher era, which notoriously saw the rise of
the AIDS epidemic, saw the enshrining into law of Section 28, a law which was designed to “not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish
material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote
the teaching in any maintained
school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family
relationship" in 1988. However, the election of Tony Blair’s ‘New’ Labour
government, saw a shift in legal activity concerning the LGBT community.
Section 28 was repealed in 2003 (except in Scotland, which repealed it in
2000), civil partnerships were legalised in 2005 and only this year equal
marriage passed through the Houses of Parliament, becoming officially legal in
2014, making the United Kingdom one of the most advanced countries concerning
LGBT legal protections in the world.
Over the past decade one of the major
advancements in the protection of the rights of the LGBT community is in
employment law. The first protections in employment law for the LGBT community were
introduced in 2003, however the current, more detailed legislation, the one you
need to know about, is the Equality Act 2010, which, in a nutshell, pretty much
is a piece of legislation designed to protect the rights of workers; to stop
them being discriminated against by their sexual orientation, gender, race age
etc.
When it comes to what the Equality Act 2010
says, it basically says that an employer cannot refuse a job, promotion or any
training opportunity to an employee on the basis of their sexual orientation.
To put this into perspective, if an employee has the right skills and fits the
job description, but the employer doesn’t offer them the job because of their
sexual orientation, then they are in breach of the Equality Act 2010. It also
illegal for an employer to discriminate against you if you are heterosexual and
you choose to associate with somebody from the LGBT community.
When it comes to actual work, the Act is
also very clear on this. An employer cannot treat an LGBT employee differently
from their co-workers, or offer different employee benefits. It is also
illegal, under the act, as well as the earlier 2003 Act, to terminate an LGBT person’s
contract based on their sexual orientation. This is only a brief overview of
your most basic rights as an LGBT person in the work place; if you want a more
comprehensive description then Nicholas Frimond would be happy to help.
