Hate crime law targets a ‘rising tide of hatred’
Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has said the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 will deal with a “rising tide of hatred”.
The new law creates a new crime of “stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.
The law does not protect women as a group from hatred – the Scottish government is expected to include this later in a separate misogyny law.
Hatred based on race, sex and religion was already illegal in Great Britain under the Public Order Act 1986, but that will also now fall under the new act in Scotland.