Hate crime in Scotland and the classification of queer lives: Doors, data and definitions

This chapter uses the topic of hate crime to initiate a broader discussion of cracks in Scotland’s liberal and inclusive imaginary as a queer, wee place. I highlight what happens at intersections where state classification practices – codified in legislation – meet the hard-to-define complexity of queer bodies, desires and identities, all overlaid by the choppy contours of where things happen. I describe how hate crime law beckons the police into the intimate nooks of queer lives and affirms state agencies as arbiters for what lives count, who is worthy of protection and which types of hate matter.