We urge Parliament to formally abolish the homophobic Portsmouth Defence, which allowed offenders to justify violence on the basis of same sex sexual advances. This undermines the Equality Act and put LGBTQ+ lives at risk. We call for urgent legislative reform to formally ban this defence.

We believe this defence treated LGBTQ+ lives as less valuable. No one’s identity should ever justify violence. This defence has no place in a modern legal system. It must be clearly banned now.