National Hate Crime Awareness Week will take place from 8th – 16th October 2022 and this year the Gaydio Academy have gratefully been chatting again with the Deputy Mayor of Manchester, Baroness Beverley Hughes, to review what has been done since our last chat in February 2022 and what the future is for fighting Hate Crime.

Baroness Hughes, Deputy Mayor of Manchester

Below is the full interview with the Deputy Mayor discussing the questions below:

1. How can we help people in our community stay safe from suffering hate crimes in Manchester?

2. If someone is involved in a hate crime incident, not a hate crime but something bad still happened – do you still think they should report it?

3. If someone thinks they’ve been a victim of a hate crime but they’re worried they won’t be taken seriously if they report it, is there anything you would say to encourage them?

4. How can our listeners and the wider LGBTQ+ community help raise awareness about hate crime in Manchester?

5. Would you say Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to hate crime?

6. If we look at the latest hate crime data from GMP, around 70% of reported hate crimes over the past 12 months are related to a person’s ethnicity – do you think people of colour are experiencing hate crimes more, or are they reporting them more because they’re confident their voices will be heard by the authorities?

7. The last time we discussed hate crime in Manchester, you spoke about the four pillars (=the long-term strategy for how we tackle this issue). Can you update us on this, please? From your point of view is this still the key strategy for tackling hate crime in the region?

8. Also, looking ahead, are there any future plans or strategies for tackling hate crimes you can let us know about in advance?