If i’m out and about with my husband and we hold hands, nobody bats an eyelid. If we see something that makes us laugh, we can look at each other and have a hug, we can o so without being hassled.  If he is meeting me off the train, I can rush up and give him a kiss. We can be pretty much as spontaneous as we like.

The stabbing outside The Two Brewers in Clapham on Sunday night, which is being treated as a homophobic incident, shows that not everyone can take the simple act of being out and about with their partner for granted.

In response to this appalling attack, the Young Liberals said:

Our account is run by two LGBTQ+ people who live in south London.

The appalling homophobic attack on two men in Lambeth on Saturday night is an horrific reminder that prejudice is alive and well in our capital.

Our thoughts are with the victims at this incredibly difficult time, and we would like to join @Ben_Curtis_1 and @LambethLibDems in sending our best wishes to the staff at the wonderful @2BrewersClapham for their response.

This incident is a reminder that we need to do so much more to tackle the hatred that our community faces, and we are glad to see the Met Police are treating this with the seriousness it needs.

A Radio 2 phone-in yesterday highlighted the everyday prejudice to which the LGBT+ community is subjected. Gay men described how they wouldn’t dare hold hands for fear of attracting trouble. Lesbians gave horrendous accounts of being sexually assaulted by men who were apparently trying to “turn” them. Even in a country where the majority of people back LGBT rights, too many can’t properly be themselves in public.

A friend told me that he and his partner of almost 10 years hardly ever hold hands in public and if they do, they do a risk assessment first. We also talked about how lesbians face both homophobia and misogyny.

It’s worth listening to the discussion on the programme to understand what LGBT+ people have to put up with.

Earlier this year, the UN’s independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity said that abusive rhetoric from politicians was to blame for a surge in hate crimes against LGBT+ people. In his report, he said:

Bolstered by strong protections of freedom of information in the UK, news media and social media are instruments for advocacy and visualizing violations of the human rights of LGBT persons. On the other hand, government authorities and civil society representatives in the UK informed the Independent Expert that those media channels are also spreading anti-trans discourse and stereotypical imagery of LGBT persons as dangerous, often employing homophobic and transphobic rhetoric.

Across the UK, civil society and public officials informed the Independent Expert that such abusive rhetoric by politicians is trickling down and facilitating increasingly abusive and hateful speech in the social media, which in turn seems to be spurring rapid increases in the frequency of bias-motivated incidents of harassment, threats, and violence, including rampant surges in hate crimes. Human Rights defenders voiced consistent and concerning accounts of experiencing substantial amounts of abuse both online and offline, in response to their efforts to increase protections of the human rights of LGBT persons in law, policy and practice.

The Government is very proud of its “culture wars” or to describe it as what it actually is, state bullying of marginalised groups. They think that having a go at immigrants and trans people, or attacking drag queen’s story time as Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross took time out of his day to do recently, is going to win them the next election.

The awful stabbing in Clapham the other night and the thousands of other hate crime incidents across the UK every year are examples of the fire breaking out, but the climate whipped up by Government ministers and the media provides the kindling. Similarly, the anti immigrant sentiment didn’t just happen. It’s been whipped up by the tabloid press and right wing politicians.

And when people report these hate motivated incidents, they often don’t get the attention they deserve. ITV reports that another attack happened last week and the Police didn’t do much more than give a crime reference number. I also found that 4 years ago when I was threatened by a man while out walking my dog. It was 6 days before the Police came to my house to take a statement, by which time another woman experienced a similar incident close to my house.

LGBT+ Lib Dems communications officer Luke Allan said on Twitter:

The culture war reverberates. Those fueling LGBTQ+ hate—commentators, politicians, instigators—must be accountable. Words have consequences.

Concurrently, we must eradicate the systemic LGBTQ+phobia and LGBTQ+ failings within police forces. It’s time for real change.

This is why it is so important to stop this bullying of marginalised groups and bring people together. Liberal Democrats have a responsibility to challenge the anti LGBT narrative, call out the misinformation and do all we can to make the world a safer, happier and more accepting place. Standing by while women, LGBT+ people, immigrants, people needing social security or disabled people are targeted by the right is not an option.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings