JD Vance is using a trade deal to get the UK to end its LGBTQ+ hate speech protections

Vice President JD Vance
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Trump administration is working to get the U.K. to drop its hate speech protections – laws that prohibit inciting violence against protected classes – as part of a larger trade deal with the U.S.

Currently, it’s illegal to incite hatred on the basis of sexual orientation in England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, and on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Scotland. Hate speech laws don’t exist in the U.S. due to a different understanding of free speech, but they are common in other wealthy democracies as an attempt to stop people from inciting violence against historically persecuted groups.

The Trump administration, though, appears to want to impose the U.S. understanding of free speech on the U.K. The Independent reports that an unnamed source in Washington said that Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are putting pressure on U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer (Labour) to repeal the nation’s hate speech laws in order to get a larger trade deal signed.

The source said that Vance is “obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation” and views hate speech laws in the U.K. as part of the problem. Vance, according to the source, believes that the trade deal “is a way of putting further pressure on the U.K. over free speech. If a deal does not go through, it makes Labour look bad.”

“No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that,” the source said.

Vance has publicly been quite critical of European countries, saying that they are…

Read full story, and more, from Source: JD Vance is using a trade deal to get the UK to end its LGBTQ+ hate speech protections