Ian Baynham kicked to death for being gay in crowded Trafalgar Square at 11pm.

James Parkes savagely beaten outside a busy Liverpool gay bar at 10 in the evening.

Yet again we’ve been reminded that we can still pay the price of homophobia with our lives. We need your help to stop this senseless homophobic violence. Our Homophobic Hate Crime report found that one in five lesbian, gay and bisexual people experienced a crime like this in the last three years.

‘Insults and attacks are a part of our day-to-day lives and so often we do not realise we should report them or seek help. From an early age, we are bullied in the playground, attacked for who we are or beaten for who we date.’ (Lucy, 25, North East)

The violence against Ian and James was perpetrated by young people aged as young as 14 who weren’t educated 20 or even ten years ago, but in the last five years. Some are even still at school today.

Homophobic bullying in schools is an epidemic that leads to appalling violence on our streets. Stonewall knows that to stop homophobia we need to start in our schools.

Schools need help to get this right. So we’ll send teaching resources, such as our bold new DVD FIT, into every secondary school in the country. We’re engaging directly with individual Local Education Authorities to ensure that schools address homophobic behaviour both in and outside the school grounds.

Stonewall is also working with police up and down the country to ensure they know how to tackle homophobic hate crime. Because 75 per cent of gay people don’t report crime because they don’t realise they can or should, we’re also enabling the police to support lesbian, gay and bisexual victims.

It’s important that lesbian, gay and bisexual people report homophobic hate crime when it happens. But we don’t always know how to report incidents, or even if something is worth reporting. So early next year Stonewall will distribute a Hate Crime Guide – so gay people know what to do if it happens to them.

£35 would, for example, help us to send an information pack and DVD to one secondary school to help teachers better understand and challenge homophobia in their classrooms.

£50 would enable us to train eight police officers to recognise homophobic bullying and encourage people to report it.

Stonewall believes in a Britain where one day everyone feels safe. At home. At school. At work.

(Click here for more information on hate crime and our report)

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