Petition Legislate to explicitly ban the Portsmouth Defence

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.

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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.

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32 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 32 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

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Created by Nestor Scarratt
Deadline 16 March 2026 All petitions run for 6 months
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