Successful prosecution in Rugby
A 56-year old defendant from Rugby has been sentenced for racially abusing two people including a police officer.
Read more...MPs have called for "urgent action" from the government to fight the rise in online homophobia.
According to the BBC, The Commons debate followed a petition calling for a new law - organised by reality TV star Bobby Norris.
The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) cast member said he had been spurred into action by multiple cases of abuse directed at him on social media.
The Home Office has said a range of offences already exist to prosecute hate crimes.
But it added that it had asked the Law Commission - an independent body that reviews the law in England and Wales - to review whether current hate crime legislation was effective in tackling online and offline abuse.
Speaking during the debate, Labour's Angela Eagle - who spoke passionately about her own sexuality in Parliament recently - said ministers needed to take steps to tackle the "growing threat" and "increase in violence" against LGBT+ people both online and in the real world.
She said: "In London, a couple of weeks ago, two gay women were beaten and robbed by five teenagers for refusing to kiss each other on demand.
"In Southampton, two women kissing in the street were injured by an object thrown at them from a passing car.
"In Liverpool, two men were stabbed and seriously hurt in a homophobic knife attack and one of those held for the attack was 12 years old.
"In my view, the government have not reacted firmly enough to prevent this happening. I think our values of respect for diversity in society are now being tested and we must not be found wanting in our defence of them."
The BBC reported that the Labour Party's Daniel Zeichner MP (pictured above), who began the debate, said that laws governing the matter were "fragmented" and that politicians had failed to "get to grips" with regulation of the social media companies involved.
"The promotion of this kind of content contributes to an environment where problematic language and ideas are completely normalised, meaning there's a degree of desensitisation," he added.
"We must row back from this and take online homophobia for what its is: hate speech that must not be accepted."
Earlier on Monday, Mr Norris said the comments he had received had included, "I hope you get cancer" and "go hang yourself".
"I don't think you can ever fully prepare yourself," he told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.
"I hear from some people who don't want to leave their houses because it's got so bad. I've heard of people hurting themselves, unfortunately some people even taking their own lives, it gets that severe."
He added that he thought creating a new law would send out a signal that online abuse linked to a victim's sexual orientation was unacceptable.
"People feel that little bit more brave when they're sat behind a computer screen or sat on their phone sending messages to people.
"Some people have specific trolling accounts - sometimes they don't even put a photo on.
"If we look at how easy it is to set up a social media account, I think people just need to be a little bit more accountable and a little bit more aware of what they are sending."
'Utterly cowardly'
More than 152,000 people signed Mr Norris's e-petition. That surpassed the 100,000 figure required to have such an appeal considered for debate.
John Howell, a Conservative MP, also took part. He described such abuse as being "utterly cowardly", since the perpetrators often hid their own identities.
But he added that it needed to be seen in the context of wider hate crimes, and that MPs should take account of the Law Commission's report due in 2020.
"The more that we can do to try to keep a check on online [abuse]... and that we take action against it, the healthier we will be," he said.
"This is a very important subject, not just for gay people but for all of us to show our common humanity in this area... and the protection of human rights."
Since 2014, Warwickshire has seen a year-on-year increase in hate crime affecting LGBT+ people, so the media headlines covering hate crime is not just happening in London, Southampton or Liverpool.
If any person experineces or witnesses any form of hate crime, they should always report. There are various ways to report depending on how much information people wish to give.
You can ring the Police by calling 101 in a non-emergency situation, but always call 999 in an emergency.
In Warwickshire, some people do not wish to contact the police directly, so they can report hate crimes/incidents to EQuIP, who are an independent charity. You can report online via the www.reporthatenow.com website, email EQuIP: advice@equipequality.org.uk, or people wishing to report would prefer to speak to someone in person, you can contact telephone EQuIP on 01788 863117.