Homophobic 'banter' is still rife amongst barristers, according to a new study of sexuality at the Bar.

In the survey of 126 practising barristers, Queens Counsel, pupils and BPTC students, almost one third stated that at work or in their professional studies they had 'sometimes', 'often' or 'frequently' experienced discrimination linked to their sexuality. While 74% said it happened rarely or never, according to Stonewall's figures for the UK that still makes the Bar seven percentage points more bigoted than the general population. And 49% of respondents said they had sometimes, often or frequently experienced ‘banter’ linked to their sexuality.

“I was still subject to quite a lot of what the blokes in chambers thought was hilarious humour", said one QC. "And every
time somebody got drunk at a party or a dinner I got some bloke coming up to me asking why I was a
lesbian and hadn’t I ever considered having sex with men – really quite inappropriate comments
".

The report's authors, Dr Steven Vaughan from UCL and Marc Mason from the University of Westminster, said they were struck in the 38 follow-up interviews by how many barristers "played down or made light of their own homophobic experiences". Despite being "fearless advocates in the pursuit of their client’s interests", many of them had "failed to step forward and defend their own rights, to speak up in the face of homophobia". One barrister recalled how a colleague "was making some fairly unpleasant homophobic comments which was making the pupil feel uncomfortable", but they did not report it, "rightly or wrongly", because, "it would feel a little bit like if I went to the head of chambers, [I would be] telling tales out of school".

A number of students referred to incidents at the Inns of Court, where one recounted how a colleague attending an Inns' qualifying session was "talking to a bencher who sort of jokingly or flamboyantly said, 'I don't trust fags like you'." The BPTC student took no action because, "it was a bencher, what are you going to do basically?” A barrister spoke about taking a senior colleague who "was talking about a judge who apparently had transitioned...in quite a horrible, disparaging way, like referring to her as ‘it’ and saying that she was sort of trying to play a trick on people by changing her name”.

    "It was bluebell time in Ke-"

"Gay!" 

Dr Vaughn told RollOnFriday, "we were surprised, and horrified, at the levels of homophobia the research showed". But, he said, while homophobic banter seems widespread at the Bar, "for some, it was part of the the give and take, the repartee, of the Bar. For others, it was deeply offensive".

Sam Mercer, Head of Equality & Diversity at the Bar Council, said, "Reports such as this signal that more needs to be done to keep making progress in changing attitudes across the whole profession and amongst those who work with barristers. Some comments referred to in the report are absolutely unacceptable". He said, "Unfortunately, there are still a few members of the Bar who haven’t yet realised the effects of making these sort of comments either seriously - or ‘in jest’".
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