THEGAYUK

Tag: Big Gay Election

  • What The 2017 General Election Result Could Mean For The LGBT Community

    What. A. Night.

    Defying all expectations, Jeremy Corbyn increased the number of Labour seats in the House of Commons as Prime Minister Theresa May lost her majority, leading to a hung parliament and casting doubt on Mrs May’s future as the Conservative Party leader. Right now she looks like she’s hanging on by the skin of her teeth, looking to do a deal with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party.

    This is bad news for the LGBT community. The DUP is promising to “make its influence felt” in Westminster. We should all be concerned.

    Back in 2015, I wrote about what a disaster a Tory-DUP coalition would mean for us. The DUP is deeply homophobic; they’ve blocked same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland at least four times and laid down as a “red line” marriage equality as a condition for forming a stable government at Stormont with Sinn Fien, the nationalist and pro-gay marriage party.

    That the DUP is so anti-gay that they’re willing to send Northern Ireland into political turmoil over the issue of marriage should concern everyone. Theresa May looks to form a government propped up by their 10 MPs, and this could mean a hard stop to any progress the LGBT community has made.

    The majority of Tory MPs voted against equalising marriage in England and Wales. When the Conservatives passed mandatory personal and sexual health education earlier this year, they omitted education about LGBT people and issues, despite the fact that Education Secretary Justine Greening is an out lesbian. The Tories themselves don’t have the best record of LGBT equality.

    So put them with the DUP, we can expect a real halt to any progress we’ve made over the past 20 years. Whilst education and marriage are devolved issues in Northern Ireland, the party is so deeply homophobic that it’s easy to imagine the Tories not bringing up equality votes for as long as the DUP is the linchpin in their government. Why risk losing your tenuous majority over an “identity politics” issue? Beyond that, though, the Tories are unlikely to push the DUP to enhance and equalise the rights of the LGBT community in Northern Ireland – the last legally homophobic holdout in the British Isles.

    This becomes even riskier considering Theresa May’s commitment (that wasn’t in the manifesto, by the way) to scrap human rights laws – notably the Human Rights Act – which protect LGBT rights. This is ostensibly to combat terrorism at home, but has implications for LGBT equality (for example, in the armed services). Whether the Tories would let the DUP dictate which LGBT rights protections are enshrined in UK law as we transfer EU law to our domestic books is an unknowable. But considering how much of a red line it is at Stormont (after all, they’re willing to jeopardise Northern Ireland peace to keep gay people from marrying), it’s deeply concerning.

    The Tories don’t have a good record on LGBT equality, no matter how you cut it. Yes, David Cameron introduced equal marriage, but it only passed because of Labour and Liberal Democrat votes. The Conservative Party has improved, but it’s not at the level of “ally” yet. That they’re considering going into coalition with the DUP jeopardises LGBT rights in Northern Ireland and, indeed, England and Wales as EU laws which protect us are written into British law.

    The news of the night isn’t all bad, though. Whilst some gay MPs – such as Tory Ben Howlett, who I interviewed last month – lost their seats, we look set to have at least 30 LGBT MPs in the next parliament. Gay candidates such as Wes Streeting and Peter Kyle increased their majorities, whilst Mhairi Black and Justine Greening clung on with reduced majorities – is welcome news for the community. I don’t have an exact count on how many LGBT candidates were elected, but I hope to do so by this evening.

    In the meantime, the LGBT community – like the rest of the country – waits with bated breath to find out what is going to happen to the country we love. No one knows the answer. If Theresa May does hang on, though, it is incumbent upon her to put the LGBT community’s welfare beyond her own desire for power and to make sure any deal, including with the DUP, does not sacrifice the progress we have made – or the victories we are yet to win.

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Interview: Peter Kyle

    Peter Kyle is used to a fight. He has represented Hove since 2015 – one of the few Labour gains that year. Now he’s standing for reelection against Kirsty Adams, who has come under scrutiny for her views on faith healing and connections to a church which allegedly claims to be able to “cure” gay people.  He has also been famously critical of party leadership, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

    Ever outspoken, THEGAYUK spoke with Mr Kyle last month. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    THEGAYUK MAGAZINE: You were one of the few Labour gains from the Tories in 2015, a real success for the party as the only Labour MP in Sussex. How are you feeling this go-round?

    PETER KYLE: This election has a lot more pressure for me and the team, but a lot less stress. The pressure comes from the fact that there are now a lot of people who are really depending on me and the team to win again. I’m very aware of that pressure. And being only two years in, a lot of people sacrificed an awful lot for us to win the first time, and also to contribute to the work we’re doing here. I desperately want to make sure that I can deliver for them, and that we can keep the whole operation here to serve the community in the way we have.

    But a lot less stress, because in the last election there was a lot of battling with the party who kept sending down a lot of – it was very centrally controlled, and I was rebelling against it all the time, which caused a lot of stress and difficulty for me personally, and some of the people helping me to run the campaign. But this time me and the party are completely on the same page. They’ve been unbelievably helpful and supportive. It feels very different and at times it’s still so surprising because it’s such a swift election, unlike the last one. But I’m certainly relishing it and enjoying it.

    TGUK: It’s interesting to hear you talk about the support you have from the party because last year you called Jeremy Corbyn a “losing leader.” Do you still think that and how have you been handling the issue of the Labour leadership on the doorstep?

    PK: The quote you just referenced actually wasn’t solely linked to Jeremy. When I said that quote, the exact quote was, “I’ll be loyal to a winning vision for Britain, not a losing leader.” And that was in reference to, not just to the situation that the Labour Party was in at the time, which was last summer. It was in reference to the fact that in the past that every time we’ve been asked to be loyal to an individual, and not a vision, then the party has stumbled. I was even referencing Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Exactly that point when it shifted from being an agenda and a vision for Britain to “who are you loyal to? Are you Tony’s or are you Gordon’s?” then the whole operation, the whole vision, started to fall apart. So that was what I was getting at that point.

    But I do accept there is some relevance to today, and I’ve never recoiled from the fact that I’ve been critical of Jeremy. I didn’t support him in either of his leadership elections. I supported other candidates. I also voted no confidence in him. So it would be completely ludicrous for me to stand here now and say I wouldn’t rather have another leader leading us into this election because my past shows that I would.

    TGUK: Your majority is only 1,236, which is why I imagine you had so many phone calls so early on. Labour is keen to defend this seat. But the Greens have stood down in Brighton Kempton and the Liberal Democrats have stood down in Brighton Pavilion. Any chance they could stand down in favour of you, and would you welcome their support – especially given your opposition to Brexit?

    PK: Well also, don’t forget UKIP have stood down in Hove. You’ve got UKIP, you’ve got Liberals, and you’ve got the Greens all doing deals behind closed doors, and all trying to tell their own supporters whom they should vote for. And then we have the Labour Party, which is the only party which is going out there and just meeting the public and selling a vision to the public and letting the public know who they are, what we stand for, and what we will do if we win their trust. For me, politics starts in a community and it ends in a community. Before I became an MP, I’d set two charities up and I got a doctorate in community development. For me, it is all about the community. The idea that I would try to earn votes by disappearing off into a meeting room and doing a deal is a complete anathema to everything I believe politics should be about, which is about establishing a relationship and earning trust. So I know there is a lot of sort of game playing going on, but at the end of the day, I just think it’s residents and voters who own democracy. It is not political parties.

    TGUK: To piggyback off that, though, doesn’t it sort of make sense if your primary objective is to defeat the Tories to form these electoral pacts? Or is that not your primary objective?

    PK: Well it’s so seductive, and I understand why. But I can’t, as a Labour Member of Parliament or representative go to a voter who has voted for me in the past and say “I want you to vote for someone else.”

    TGUK: Well no, in this case, they would be saying “vote for Peter!”

    PK: No I realise, but I think when you’ve spent so much time door-knocking and talking to people, our job is to get out there and earn the votes. People have fractured and supported different political parties for a reason… And just think – if I was a voter having my dinner and listening to a political party just using my vote as a pawn, as a trading block, as you know, horse-trading my vote. I know exactly how I would feel. It would absolutely drive me crazy that someone would take my vote and assume they can trade it, when I’ve never even met the person. I don’t understand what’s driving it. Can you understand how completely frustrating this would be – or is – for people? …I didn’t go into politics to disenfranchise people and to take the vote away. I went into politics to earn peoples’ votes. So the idea that people could be left with no alternative but to sit at home and not vote for anybody, I don’t know. It’s just, you know, that’s why we can go ‘round and ‘round in circles or we can just do it the old-fashioned way, which is what I like doing. Get out there in communities, tell people who you are, listen to people – because listening is the single most powerful tool in politics – and then put your values and principles to task to solve their problems that they tell you about. For me, it’s simply that straightforward.

    TGUK: Well one of your values has been, as you’ve said, very pro-European. You were against triggering Article 50, even after the referendum vote. Why?

    PK: Because I didn’t see that our country is ready to start the process. And every day since has vindicated the decision I took there. What I was not doing was trying to stop the process of leaving the European Union altogether. What I was doing was just trying to say that if we start this process now, I believe there is a likelihood that my community will be damaged by it, either economically or socially.

    TGUK: So you don’t subscribe to the “now or never” philosophy?

    PK: No. No. We do this when we’re ready because it’s massive. It’s unprecedented. At the time of triggering Article 50, to the best of our knowledge, the European Union has 600 specialist trade negotiators and 3000 support negotiators. As of the latest data coming from our government, we had zero. So we only started hiring trade negotiators late last year. So they could only have been in post a couple months before we start the most complicated set of negotiations our country has ever faced in our history. So is it right to start it at that point, or should we wait a couple months until the team is ready, we know what our negotiation stances are, we understand the breadth of this, this huge endeavour we’re about to undertake. I think it was wise just to wait to get it ready. Triggering Article 50 by the end of March was just totally arbitrary. A totally arbitrary date that Theresa May plucked simply for political expediency and not based on what would get the best results for our country. So could I just blindly walk along with that? I couldn’t.

    TGUK: So much of LGBT equality, from the equal age of consent to military service, was accomplished through European mechanisms (the European Court of Human Rights or the European Court of Justice, in particular). Brexit doesn’t pull us out of the European Court of Human Rights, but the Tories have made overtures to repealing the Human Rights Act in the past. What does Brexit mean for LGBT rights in the UK?

    PK: Well, we already know that Theresa May has said she wants this election to strengthen her negotiating hand with the European Union, in the negotiations. But instantly she has started to talk now about overturning things like the fox hunting ban. So we know for a fact that she is going to use this strong mandate not just for the negotiations. She’s going to use this overwhelming power that she has asked and demanded from the British public to turn the clock back to please people who are ideologically conservative. And what worries me is that we now have this strand of conservatism in this country which is being led by Republican conservatism in the US. It’s starting to talk very openly about small-c conservative values, which include some elements of religious values. I’ve had now several times people starting to talk to me again about whether we should look again at gay marriage.

    TGUK: Are these people on the doorstep?

    PK: Not many. But it’s now – one person has suggested to me that liberal values like gay marriage was one of the reasons they voted for Brexit, and that they’ve been kind of allowed to believe that by UKIP and some conservative elements within the Tory party. So we need to make sure – I think what we need now is a period where we really defend what we’ve achieved in the last couple decades.

    I went to high school in the 80s and I remember vividly Section 28 being read out in school. We were reading a book and the teacher had to read a text that basically clarified that by reading this text they were in no way condoning the actions of the two characters. That’s a state comprehensive school in Sussex. So to go from that which led up to 1996, and then suddenly in 1997 to have such a swift pathway towards a whole bunch of things, using the European Union and civil society campaigning groups like Stonewall and all of the other local ones which were incredible.

    We had such rapid progress that I understand some people were unsettled by it, because rapid change always unsettles people. But we now need a period where we’re not just looking to what we need to achieve in the next ten years.

    TGUK: Her Majesty just gave royal assent to mandatory sex and relationship education, but it doesn’t include LGBT people. My question is are we ever going to have LGBT-inclusive PSHE?

    PK: A school in my constituency here has won a Stonewall Award for equality in education. One of the other schools here has a gay group where – it’s very interesting, it’s not just for students who are gay. It’s for other students to show support for or learn how to talk about gender or sexuality in, not in a sensitive way, but in an inclusive way. I sat in and observed one of these groups and it was absolutely inspiring. Young people sort of, I don’t know, they have a particular way of dealing with these issues which is for people of my age, in their mid-40s, is quite emotional because it’s just so profoundly different to how it was done in my day. Well, it wasn’t done in my day. I grew up, I didn’t know another gay person growing up. So when you read this Section 28 stuff, it has this profound impact on you because you can’t really go talk to anyone else and ask “how do you feel about this?” It was a very isolating experience, whereas in progressive schools now and I believe in a majority of parts of the country now, having a diversity challenge – whatever it might be- is becoming a much more inclusive and shared experience which you can talk about openly and share, even if it’s not an experience shared by others, if you know what I mean?

    TGUK: You’ve advocated outlawing sex in return for housing accommodation – something many people undoubtedly support. But what does this trend tell us about the state of housing in this country, and what can Labour do to fix it?

    PK: Well I mean I live in Brighton and Hove where we have an absolute housing crisis and because not only do we have a housing shortage, we are short by about 13 or 14 000 homes. On top of that, we’ve got two universities. We have a very specific challenge and I think we’re an outlier city when it comes to housing, because other cities are moving in the same direction and we need to be really upfront and honest about this.

    What that means is we have some people who are being made vulnerable by it and these are people who are, I say that young people who grew up in a family with assets will always succeed. If people grew up in a family where the parents own the housing, they have assets, they have capital, then they’re going to succeed in life. But increasingly people who don’t have capital are going to struggle. So if you’re talent rich but capital poor you’re going to really struggle in life, and these are the people who are becoming increasingly susceptible to exploitation. And the sex for rent is the latest incarnation of it.

    The solution is quite simple: we need to build more houses. In a city like Brighton and Hove, we need to build more houses for people who are growing up here, have a connection to the city, because 40 percent of the housing transactions here go to people from London.

    TGUK: I hesitated to bring this up, but I have to ask, what do you make of claims your Tory opponent, Kirsty Adams, believes she healed a deaf man by laying hands on him and praying? Could faith healing replace the NHS?

    PK: The thing that worries me more than this being uncovered is the fact that she did an interview last week where she refused to answer questions about her faith, and she refused to even answer the question about whether she had faith because she said it’s a private matter. I believe that is much more of a worry than the claim to have healed someone by laying her hands on them. The reason is this – if you stand up in front of sixty or seventy thousand people and say “I want to be your advocate, I want to be your voice in the House of Commons,” people need to know what motivates you, what drives you, what is your decision making process?

    That’s why I think it’s absolutely fair for people to ask me if I’m gay or not. I think the line gets blurred when people ask about your history or your sexual history or more intimate details. Then the line gets blurred. Obviously, there is a limit. But faith, sexuality, family background, these are all things that speak to who you are and how you make decisions and what gets you out of the bed in the morning and motivates you in life. These are fundamental parts of your being, and therefore to refuse to even discuss it or acknowledge it in public worries me far more than claims that she can cure the deaf.

    TGUK: What’s the biggest issue facing the LGBT community in this election?

    PK: Hate. I think it’s hate. I think there is, something has happened in our community, in our society in the last few years. I think politicians should use the platform they have to bring people together. Yet in the last few years, very unusually in British politics because – Karl Marx said that Britain is the rock on which the waves of revolution break. And he was right about that, at least. We’re not a revolutionary society. We are actually a phenomenally accepting community.

    Indeed, we accepted him when every other country repelled him. But recently, unusually for us, we’ve had people who have exploited difference for political gain and have actually driven a wedge between groups of people by age, by gender, by sexuality, you know?

    Nigel Farage choosing to sew the seeds of fear about HIV, people living with HIV, during an election period is one of the most hateful things I’ve ever experienced in my life. Instantly when I saw him do it brought tears to my eyes. Tears of anger. That is something we have to stand very firm against because I think it is still there. There are some who are still doing it. And there are some in our society who are susceptible to the lure of the simple answers the peddlers of hate have. And that makes us as a community, as an LGBT community, extremely vulnerable.

     

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Week in review, we’re in the home stretch!

    With only two days before the nation votes, we again stand in the shadows of tragedy. The terrorist attacks at London Bridge and Borough Market on Saturday have proven another unexpected development, changing the narrative of an already convoluted election. What Theresa May billed as the Brexit election when she announced it back in April has quickly become the security election. Both the Prime Minister and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn have faced criticism over their records on terror and security – Mrs May for cuts to policing and intelligence failures on her watch, and Mr Corbyn for his links to the IRA and other terrorist organisations.

    It’s easy to look at what happened over the weekend – and in Manchester last month – and lose sight of other issues as they pale in comparison. But alas, there are stories worth bringing your attention to as we enter the home stretch of election 2017 – which has proven to be gayer than we ever thought possible.

    That could be down to something in the water. That is, at least according to Susan King, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Telford. In a web chat with the Shropshire Star last week, Ms King – a former anti-fluoride campaigner – claimed “there are a lot of feminising hormones getting into the environment and that has to be taken into consideration.” As if that weren’t a peculiar enough statement for a parliamentary candidate to make, Ms King continued by adding that “it’s affecting people’s sexuality basically,” whilst insisting that “people are at liberty to interpret how they want to live themselves.”

    The notion that British water is making people gay has attracted a lot of criticism, not only because many people think it’s borderline homophobic but because it’s also just quite daft. In a way, though, I kind of wish our water were making people gay. Maybe then I could marry Prince Harry.

    Of course, then Caroline Ansell might try to cure us both. Ansell, the incumbent Conservative candidate in Eastbourne, accepted funding for an intern from the homophobic and transphobic Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) charity. According to the Metro, CARE funded a conference on conversion therapy back in 2009. It shouldn’t be so surprising that Ansell would take money from CARE,  as she is also a member of the Kings Church Eastbourne, which the Metro reports is a part of anti-LGBT churches that preach gay people can be “cured.”

    Another church that allegedly believes gay people can be “exorcised” of the demons of same-sex attractions is Jesus House, a fast growing church in London. Last week, Theresa May stopped by to worship with its controversial and anti-gay marriage pastor, Agu Irukwu. Pink News reports that Pastor Irukwu wrote in 2006 that the Sexual Orientation Regulations was “the latest discrimination against Christians” and that it would “force Christians… to accept and even promote the idea that homosexuality is equal to heterosexuality.” (Spoilers: it didn’t.)

    If it seems I’m beating up on the Tories and Liberal Democrats here, it’s because they’ve given me the most fodder over the past several weeks. I’ve been keeping a keen eye out for any interesting gay gaffes, and other than Kezia Dugdale telling people to vote for the Tories (seriously, that’s a really bad electoral strategy, Kezia), Labour has been fairly gaffe-free on issues of equality. The Tories, with their notoriously checkered history on issues of equality, are continuing to experience growing pains as they try to balance their conservative base with their more progressive front bench (and a more enlightened electorate). The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, literally started and ended this campaign talking about gay sex.

    When we wake up on Friday morning we could have the gayest parliament in history. The last parliament already saw a world record number of gay MPs. Yet in a report for Pink News, Professor Andrew Reynolds of The LGBT Representation and Rights Research Initiative at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill predicts that “the gains made by LGBTQ candidates in June 2017 will outweigh any losses.” According to Professor Reynolds, there could be as many as 24 new LGBT MPs elected of the 147 openly LGBT candidates standing this year.

    So all and all, not a bad gay election. Of course, I don’t know who is going to win on Friday (the polls show Labour pulling close, but it’s still likely to be a Tory majority), but I do know that this election has been more of a whirlwind than any in my lifetime. I’m kind of glad it’s almost over, and I live for politics, so I can’t imagine how you must be feeling. Just hang in there and know that no matter who emerges as Prime Minister at the end of the week, THEGAYUK Magazine will be there to bring you all the details.

    [os-widget path=”/thegayuk/who-should-i-vote-for” of=”thegayuk” comments=”false”]

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Week in review, manifestos and more

    After a few sombre days of mourning the victims of the Manchester attack, the Conservative and Labour are back on the campaign trail

    With less than two weeks until the country votes on the 8th of June, you can bet they’re ready to make up for lost time and make their final pitches to the public.

    The biggest political story of the past two weeks is undoubtedly the release of the party manifestos. Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives all released their manifestos last week. I blogged about what they pledged to the LGBT community for HuffPost UK, while THEGAYUK’s editor-in-chief, Jake Hook, put together a quick guide for your easy reference.

    Labour and the Lib Dems specifically made pledges to the LGBT community, but the Tories didn’t mention us once. This is, to put it bluntly, unacceptable. Regardless of political position, that one of the major parties—never mind the Prime Minister’s party—would neglect to mention the LGBT community or make any specific pledges to us seems almost unfathomable. It is yet another gaffe in an already controversial Tory manifesto, which has seen the Prime Minister U-turn on her plans for a so-called “dementia tax” (which would use the homes of deceased dementia sufferers to subsidise the care they received whilst alive).

    Why the Conservatives didn’t think to include us in their vision for the country is beyond me, but it’s nothing short of an astonishing. This is all the more galling when you consider that UKIP, of all parties, managed to remember us when they controversially released their manifesto yesterday, ahead of the resumption of campaigning by the other parties. Granted, they only mentioned the LGBT+ community in a pledge to “test the social attitudes of migration applicants” towards women and gay people.

    Whilst this sounds nice on the surface – nobody wants a bunch of raging homophobes coming into the country – many on social media have pointed out that a lot of UKIP’s own members wouldn’t pass this test. In the last week alone it was revealed that Iain Kealey, the UKIP candidate for Bristol South, once compared gay people marching against Islamophobia as “Jews for Hitler,” whilst their candidate in Witney has a penchant for referring to our community as the “gaystapo” and allegedly has ties to those who practice gay conversion therapy. Oh, and he’d like to repeal gay marriage.

    UKIP wasn’t the only party with a gay cure controversy though. The conservative candidate in Brighton and Hove, Kirsty Adams, is reported to have links to a church that believes LGBT people are possessed by demons, which they then try to cast out. Ms Adams, who is standing against openly gay incumbent Labour candidate Peter Kyle, refused to say she doesn’t believe in the practice of casting out demons, but did say she has “never been homophobic” and supported equal marriage. “I am committed to all forms of equality,” she said in a statement.

    Never mind casting out demons, though. Some trans people won’t even be able to cast a vote. The deadline to register to vote was Monday night, but as Pink News reported, several trans people were having issues registering after they legally changed their names or had protected National Insurance numbers (which some trans people opt for so their gender identity is less likely to be revealed).

    If they do manage to vote and live north of the border, Kezia Dugdale – the out leader of Scottish Labour – has a novel suggestion for how they should vote, and it isn’t for her party. Ms Dugdale came under fire from many on the left when she seemingly encouraged some constituencies to vote Conservative in an effort to defeat the Scottish National Party. “The reality is the vast majority of seats across Scotland, it’s only the Labour party that can beat the SNP,” she told Sky News, before adding “there are a few differences in the Borders and the Highlands where the Tories might be better placed…” Suggesting people vote for your opponents is a novel way to win seats, but takes all sorts, I suppose.

    Meanwhile, another out lesbian north of the border – the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson – has made the exact same pitch. That is, she’s asking Labour voters to support the Tories to oust the SNP. Of course, the SNP holds all but one of the constituencies in Scotland, so they’re unlikely to be completely wiped out. But Davidson’s Scottish Tories are doing remarkably well, currently polling in second place – their best showing in decades. They look poised to pick up at least one or two Scottish constituencies.

    Meanwhile, back in England, the Liberal Democrats faced a backlash from their own members for an allegedly transphobic poster. “Vote her, get him,” says an image depicting Nigel Farage’s face imposed upon Theresa May’s body. According to the Telegraph, the chair of LGBT Lib Dems, Jennie Rigg, tweeted that the sign is “bordering on transphobia” and that the press team was “making her life difficult.” This is on top of the brouhaha that erupted earlier in the campaign when Lib Dem leader Tim Farron took weeks to publicly say that no, gay sex is not a sin. Judge for yourselves whether the image is transphobic:

    In yet another bit of bad news for the Lib Dems, former Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes – who is openly bisexual – was reported to the police by his Labour opponent, the incumbent MP Neil Coyle who defeated Mr Hughes in their Bermondsey constituency in 2015. In leaflets which allegedly looked like newspapers, Mr Hughes claimed Mr Coyle was being investigated for abusing members of his party’s staff, which Mr Coyle categorically denies.

    Despite his sexual orientation, Mr Hughes has a spotty history when it comes to LGBT+ rights. He led a notoriously homophobic campaign against gay rights activist Peter Tatchell to win his constituency in 1983. More recently, he refused to vote for same-sex marriage, instead abstaining from the vote whilst outlining his opposition to same-sex marriage in a 2013 blog for the Liberal Democrat Voice. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

    On that note, I’m off to make some enemies of my own by knocking back a few pints and challenging my local bartender to an ABBA sing-off. Blame the demon homosexuals in me, I guess. Until then, stay strong and stay fabulous.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • How gay friendly is Paul Nuttall’s UKIP manifesto?

    UKIP has just released its GE2017 manifesto, so we’re delved into the paperwork to find out what UKIP have promised and pledged to the LGBT+ community of the United Kingdom.

    how gay friendly is UKIP

    In the manifesto, the term LGBT was mentioned once, in which Flo Lewis, the party’s LGBT chair, said,

    “Those of us who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender may have first hand experience of how misogynistic and homophobic attitudes are tolerated in the name of ‘respecting cultural differences.’ It is important to stand up for true equality in the face of those who would dismiss it.”

    So down to specifics:

    On education: UKIP will end sex education in primary schools. Will look into whether further legislation is required to tackle cyber bullying.

    On health: Nothing specific to LGBT+ community, but promised to increase funding for mental health. Will also hold a review into editorial codes of the media, to promote “healthy body images”.

    On politics: UKIP pledge to test the social attitudes of those who are seeking to immigrate to the UK. They wrote,

    “…we do not believe in treating women or gay people as second-class citizens, and we hold to a fundamental belief in democracy and free speech. UKIP’s points-based immigration system will therefore include one further major principle: we will test the social attitudes of migration applicants to foster community cohesion and protect core British values”.

    UKIP also will repeal Labour’s Human Rights legislation and remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights”. They will replace with a new UK Bill of rights.

    On crime: Nothing specific to LGBT+ community.

    On the world stage: Nothing specific to the LGBT+ community

     

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | F**k politics … We are all Mancunians this week

    THE BIG GAY ELECTION | F**k politics … We are all Mancunians this week

    This week in review is coming to you later than last week’s, which was two days late.

    timajo / Pixabay

    Originally I thought this was an ingenious idea. I was going to push each column back a day until we reached Thursday, 8 June – election day. So this one was meant to be sent to my editor on Monday night, for publication on Tuesday.

    And then Manchester happened.

    I can’t put into words how utterly devastated I am – how utterly devastated all of us at THEGAYUK are – about what happened at Manchester Evening News Arena on Monday night. 22 beautiful, young lights were snuffed out far too early by a hateful “loser,” as US President Donald Trump rightly called him. Twenty-two young girls and boys, women and men, lost their lives because some twisted soul bought into an ideology of hate.

    Speaking only for myself, I have wept uncontrollably for those we lost in Manchester – those beautiful, precious children and their equally precious parents who just wanted to see a pop idol sing. I pray to God that anyone and everyone responsible is brought not only to justice, but to His wrath. I hope they burn in Hell.

    In the wake of the horrific attack in Manchester, the parties have halted campaigning until at least the weekend. Some have criticised this decision, but I think it wholly right. At the end of the day, we’re all British (except me; I’m American – but I desperately wish I were British). This is a national tragedy, the likes of which we haven’t seen in twelve years, since the 7/7 attacks in 2005. Politics suddenly seems much less important when our children are being killed by terrorist thugs as end leave what was meant to be one of the happiest nights of their lives.

    As the contributing political editor for THEGAYUK, I had a decision to make: do I write in defiance of the terrorists, or do I follow suit with our political parties and cease political coverage for the next few days? I’ve grappled with this question all day, and I don’t know that I have the right answer. But I arrived at my answer.

    I’m not going to write about politics today.

    Instead, I’m going to talk about the victims who have been publicly identified, talk about their lives, and talk about what it is I think makes Britain so goddamn special.

    I hope you’ll understand.

    Saffie-Rose Roussos was 8. She became separated from her sister and mum – who at the time I’m writing this is still in hospital and unaware her daughter has died – and was killed in the terrorist attack. According to the Telegraph, her headteacher, Chris Upton said “Saffie was simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word. She was loved by everyone.” She was “unassuming, with a creative flair,” he said, and “she was loved by everyone and her warmth and kindness will be remembered fondly.”

    Georgina Callander was 18. Her mother, Leslie, was the first to lay a flower at Tuesday’s vigil in Manchester’s Albert Square. A self-proclaimed “Arianator” (the nickname for those in the Ariana Grande fandom), Georgina was seeing her idol for at least the second time. She was also an avid fan of Once Upon a Time, a television show about fairy tale characters. Several of the cast members, including Rebecca Mader (who played the Wicked Witch of the West) and Emelie de Ravin (who played Belle) tweeted condolences, remembering Georgina. (As a fellow Oncer, Georgina holds a special place in my heart, and I tweeted at series creator Adam Horowitz asking that, as another fan requested, the first episode of series 7 be dedicated in her honour.)

    Kelly Brewster was 32. She had just put the deposit on a house with her partner, intent on building a life with him and his daughter. According to the Daily Mail, she shielded her young niece, Hollie, from the shrapnel coming from the nail bomb. Hollie survived thanks to her aunt’s courage, as did Kelly’s sister – Hollie’s mum. The Daily Mail spoke to the father of Kelly’s partner, Ian, who said he is ‘absolutely distraught.’

    Alison Howe and Leslie Lees were waiting for their daughters to come out of the concert when they were killed. Both were from Royton, Oldham according to the Mirror. “They took a caring beautiful mum and step mother away from us all she was amazing to us x love you loads Alison Howe xx,” her stepson Jordan Howe posted on Facebook – again, according to the Mirror, who also reports that around the same time Leslie’s brother said she was “gone, but never ever forgotten.” These two mums were trying to collect their daughters from a pop concert. That’s it.

    These are the victims, as of 3:33 GMT on 24 May, I know of. More will surely be made known by the time this is published. (ed note: RIP to Martyn Hett)

    Their stories are equally worth telling. All 22 (and, God forbid, counting) souls’ stories are worth telling. It would be my honour to write them all.

    I may never get that chance, but what I have now is a chance to use my platform as a contributing editor of this magazine and a writer for other British outlets to say this: they will not have died in vain. Their stories will be told, and their loss will redouble our efforts to confront the scourge of extremism within our own borders and abroad – that evil ideology, irrespective of religion, that seeks to divide us. The terrorists won a battle; they will not win the war.

    Britain is at its best when it is united. It is what I love most about this country – a country that, no matter who you are or where you’re from can come together over a cup of tea. If that sounds quaint, it is, but it’s also honest – as the assassinated Labour MP Jo Cox said, we have more that unites us than divides us.

    Britain is a beautiful, resilient country that will not be cowed by terrorists. No matter our sexuality, our race, our religion – no matter anything – we will always come together. The Mancunians showed us that last night, offering their houses to strangers and their taxi rides free of charge. They took the stranger in. Why? Because they’re British, and their neighbours were in need. That’s what we do in this country.

    And though I’m American, I know a thing or two about the British spirit. I know how unbreakable it is. Times are scary, and times are tough. We’ve suffered devastating losses. But as long as we stand together, united, we cannot be defeated.

    I’ll get back to politics later this week. I have an interview with Labour MP Peter Kyle that’s not to be missed and my usual witty observations. In the meantime, I ask that you pray for Manchester – or, if you’re of no faith, keep them in your thoughts. After all…

    We are all Mancunians this week.

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Interview: Nate Higgins

    At 20 years old, Nate Higgins is one of the youngest parliamentary candidates in the country. Standing for the Greens in West Lancashire, he may be a first-time candidate, but he is well known as a leading Green Party voice on gay Twitter. Originally from Suffolk, Mr Higgins left home at an early age following the death of his mother and is now a student at Edge Hill University, where he’s studying musical theatre. He spoke last week with THEGAYUK about his life, his candidacy, and why the Green Party is the best party for young voters.

    This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

    THEGAYUK: If I’m not mistaken you’re a university student and at least one of the youngest PPCs in the country. Why are you standing?

    Nathaniel Higgins: The Green Party candidate for one of the London constituencies… is younger than me. So I don’t want to steal his thunder. But I’m standing for a number of reasons. I originally wasn’t going to. In my mind, I didn’t think it would be fair on constituents to have an MP who spends a lot of his time out of the constituency because of the nature of being a student. But after the local party and regional coordinator and a couple of other people spoke to me and thought I would be the best person to represent West Lancashire, and as I worked out my MP, Rosie Cooper’s voting record, I found a lot to disagree with. And I thought I could make a strong case that I would do the job better than her

    I also think it’s really important for young people and LGBT people to have someone in this constituency that they can vote for. I don’t know if you know much about West Lancashire, but aside from the student population, there’s this image that it’s quite conservative, socially at least. Because of that, there isn’t a lot of people around here standing up for LGBT people or the European Union or students’ rights, for examples. As a student, as a gay person, and as a pro-EU person I’m the best person to stand up for those rights. I’m not willing to compromise on my principle positions to be elected, whereas I think the other candidates are.

    TGUK: So many young gay men, in particular, seem apathetic about politics, especially as equality is achieved and mainstream acceptance is accomplished. Why should LGBT people of your generation care about this election and care about politics?

    NH: A lot of LGB people thinks it stops at the B, and I don’t think it does. Also what I think needs to be remembered is that we don’t necessarily have equality. Although it’s quite a popular opinion to say that we do, there are a lot of issues where if you’re gay, if you’re lesbian, if you’re bisexual, you’re on the backburner. For example, if you want to adopt you’re probably going to be looked at with a little bit more suspicion if you’re a gay couple. If you want to give blood, until recently you were assumed to be dirty and taking part in dangerous sexual activity. Rather than simply asking if they do, they’ll assume that you do if you’re gay. And there’s a whole other host of issues that we haven’t necessarily achieved equality yet.

    It’s not just gay people but young people across the board aren’t apathetic towards politics at all. If you ask them about individual issues on a nonpartisan basis, you’ll find quite a lot of enthusiasm for these issues among people my age. But they are apathetic about party politics, and that’s for a whole number of reasons. Primarily it’s because parties don’t feel the need to speak out to them. It’s sort of a catch-22 situation. Young people don’t vote because parties don’t speak out to them, and parties don’t speak out to them because young people don’t vote.

    TGUK: That leads perfectly into my next question. Your party, the Green Party, has pledged to equalise job seekers’ allowance, universal credit, housing benefit between those over 25 and those between 16 and 25. Many would argue this is unnecessary because so many young people have help from their parents. Why are they wrong?

    NH: If you indulge me and allow me to go into a little of my personal history, I was kicked out of my home when I was 18. I was going to college, and I had to pick up a second job in order to afford my rent, and even then I would not have been able to afford my rent without housing benefit. If that had happened now, now that housing benefit is not available for 18-21-year-olds, I would have had to leave college and move to another town where my dad lived and hope that he would be willing to let me live with him. I would not be where I am now if that had happened…

    In a lot of cases just because someone has access to parental support, it doesn’t mean it’s fair to expect them to use it. For example, say that you have a family who is not accepting of LGBT people but is willing to, when asked by the government, is willing to house you if you deny that part of who you are. I don’t think that’s something someone should have to do, and I don’t think they should have to make that case to the government in order to receive the support that they need.

    TGUK: Was that your situation? Were you kicked out for being gay?

    NH: No, not quite. My mum passed away. My mum was married to an Iranian man, and in the Iranian culture, it’s desirable to remarry as soon as possible. My stepdad’s new wife didn’t like me very much.

    TGUK: I’m sorry to hear that. But moving on to the next question, maybe a little less heavy. The Green Party is known to be on the left of British politics. Jeremy Corbyn is also extremely leftwing.  Why should our readers vote for the Greens and not just vote for Labour?

    NH: As much as politicos like to simplify it this way, politics is not a simple left/right scale. It’s far more complicated than that. What I think you need to see about Jeremy Corbyn is that there’s Jeremy Corbyn the personal politician and there’s Jeremy Corbyn the leader of the Labour Party, and the latter is far more disappointing than the former. Though there’s a lot to disagree with Jeremy Corbyn’s voting record over thirty or so years he’d been a Member of Parliament, he is one of the more progressive Members of Parliament. But as Labour leader, he has left a lot to be desired. For example, he claims to want to break open the establishment but then doesn’t support things like electoral reform that will bring that. And the reason why is there’s a lot of disagreement on the backbenches of the Labour Party on electoral reform. Jeremy Corbyn’s position is nearly untenable as it is, so he doesn’t want to implement something like that. But then you see John McDonell who does support electoral reform.

    …the Labour Party just isn’t standing up for you at the moment. You saw it on their capitulation to the Tories on Article 50, and how they gave the Conservatives a blank cheque on the Article 50 vote. And they do that because the Labour Party is terrified, absolutely terrified, of losing a certain number of its voters. It’s because the Labour Party is, at the end of the day, a coalition of very different people and its voter base is a lot of very different people. So a lot of times if you’re supporting the Labour Party you’re supporting a party that is acting in the interests of other people, whereas I think the voter base of the Green Party is much more unified. By nature of being a smaller party that’s much easier. But the Green Party is almost always going to be voting in your interest

    TGUK: Almost always?

    NH: Well I mean, no politician is perfect. There will be some Greens who disagree with the way that Caroline acts in Parliament sometimes. I don’t personally have any issues that I can think of myself, but it’s just no politician is perfect, and I think we should acknowledge that. What I think needs to be understood is in this electoral system it’s not possible for smaller parties to win a position in government as a smaller party. So a lot of the time they let go of their principles for electoral success, and the Green Party is never going to do that.

    What you also need to remember is if you’re voting for the Labour Party in hopes that Jeremy Corby becomes Prime Minister, what happens if he doesn’t? Does he then resign and you get another Blairite? The Labour Party isn’t Jeremy Corbyn. What I think you need to remember is you’re voting for a representative of your constituency, not the Prime Minister. And Party leaders change often and they change unpredictably. So I don’t think you should vote Labour just because you like Jeremy Corbyn. And depending on where you are, a Green MP might be more supportive of Jeremy Corbyn than the Labour representative is.

    TGUK: Can strategic voting and a progressive alliance actually work?

    NH: I just want to stop you right there. There is no such thing as a singular “progressive alliance.” A “progressive alliance” is a principle that has taken many different forms in many different constituencies. No party wants to implement a national alliance with any party. It wouldn’t work, it would be wrong to the activists on the ground, and it would be wrong to the candidates if they’re already selected. Instead what we’re saying is in constituencies where there is a sitting conservative MP or a progressive Labour MP is at risk of losing their seats, let’s have a conversation about what we can do to best make sure that our principles continued to be implemented by this MP. Because there’s no point in putting in all the effort of standing if you’re shooting yourself in the foot by doing so.

    TGUK: Speaking of democracy, the Green Party is against Brexit and has promised a second referendum. But haven’t the British people already decided that?

    NH: The Green Party has not promised a second referendum. No party is promising a second referendum. What we have promised is, if we were in the ability to implement this, we would bring the final deal that is implemented back to the people in a ratification referendum. And that is not a second referendum. I think that’s really important, because when people hear a second referendum, what they hear is a party trying to subvert the will of the people. But this would be a different referendum with a different question, and it would be something along the lines of “is this deal acceptable for this country?” What I think you need to remember is that though a majority of people voted for Brexit, it was such a small majority – around four per cent. …

    Once we actually know what Brexit looks like, once we know what is achievable and what is possible, we should bring that to the people just to make sure before we embark on the biggest change to our constitution since we joined the European Union.

    TGUK: So much of LGBT equality is underpinned by rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (which Brexit doesn’t take us out of) and the European Court of Justice (which it does). How can we enshrine LGBT equality achieved through European mechanisms into British law post-Brexit?

    NH: Okay, so one interesting thing is – so Theresa May, and I think people forget this, and I think Theresa May wants people to forget this, but she backed Remain. But what she said was “let’s stay in the European Union but let’s leave the European Court of Human Rights.” So her being Prime Minister now gives me absolutely no faith that we will remain in the ECHR in the long-term. What we need to make sure is that during the transition period of leaving the EU is that all of these ECHR rulings are transcribed into British law wholesale. I think that’s what should be done. There should be a bill in parliament that says all current EU law will be put on the British statute book, and we can then, later on, decide which policies are desirable to remove.

    But I don’t think that’s a negotiation that should happen during the transition process. What you’ll get is all these different – it will clog up Parliament’s time, and it will be impossible for MPs to properly hold the government to account on the thousands of different laws that they would have to decide on. Like, you can’t do this one by one. Every EU law has to become British law, and those rights for LGBT people need to come with them. Then later on if the government wants to repeal certain rights, they can make that case to Parliament. In the meantime, we need to elect progressive MPs who we know stand by LGBT rights when it comes to voting on them. We cannot allow this battle that we’ve won to be undone.

    TGUK: So that’s the opposite of the Great Repeal Bill?

    NH: I’ve not actually read up on the specifics of the Great Repeal Bill, but in my view, we need to make sure that all EU law becomes British law at the time of leaving so that when it comes to repealing specific laws it can be held to account by MPs.

    TGUK: The Green Party is also, obviously, concerned with the environment and climate change. What environmental concerns does Brexit raise?

    NH: Well, by nature the environment is… a cross-border problem. The EU is one of the best ways to coordinate on that on a European level. The United Kingdom could become a carbon neutral perfect country and the planet would still be in crisis. We cannot solve this problem on our own; that’s what the Paris climate talks were about. Removing that level of cooperation between the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, which is required in order to have a measurable impact on the environment, was a mistake in my view.

    For example, our fish don’t stop at country borders. They will swim between country borders. So we need to make sure our seas across the whole of Europe are not polluted in order to stop the negative impact that has on sea life, for example.

    TGUK: What’s the most important issue facing the LGBT community in this election?

    NH: I won’t speak for all LGBT people, but for me, my worry is that when we have a Conservative government, that LGBT rights are going to stand still whilst the rest of the world moves forward. There are things like adoption rights – the majority of Conservative MPs voted against that for LGBT people. Same-sex marriage, the majority of Conservative MPs voted against that. And something that was pointed out to me today is that the Conservative government actually banned the Church of England from carrying out same-sex marriages. If that had been any other government, that never would’ve happened. Even if the Church of England decided that it wanted to take out or provide same-sex marriages, they wouldn’t be allowed to because the Conservative Government actually banned it in the process of legalising same-sex marriage. And I think that identifies the Conservative approach to equality altogether…

  • How LGBT friendly are the major political parties’ manifestos?

    How LGBT friendly are the major political parties’ manifestos?

    How do the major parties compare on LGBT+ manifesto pledges?

    ulleo / Pixabay

    We have divided the main issues into six sections:

    Education: specific classes and lessons in sex and relationship education and a commitment to tackle bullying.

    Crime: a specific look into tackling hate crime on the basis of sexual/gender orientation. Better support for domestic violence victims and survivors.

    Workplace: a specific look into tackling inequality in the workplace.

    Healthcare: a specific look into policies affecting mental, sexual health, PrEP and transgender/intersex issues.

    In politics: What laws will be amended and changed to fully equalise the LGBT community.

    On the world stage: What will the next government do to show that the UK is a beacon of LGBT rights?

    We have also only taken parties that have a national footprint.

    CONSERVATIVES

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 0

    Education: No specific mentions of LGBT+ sex or relationship education

    Crime: No specific mention of LGBT+ but pledged: “push forward with our plan for tackling hate crime committed on the basis of religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity”

    Workplace: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: No specific mention of healthcare reforms for LGBT people – including PrEP.

    In politics: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    On the world stage: “We will expand our global efforts to combat extremism, terror, and the perpetration of violence against people because of their faith, gender or sexuality”.

    LABOUR

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 11

    Education: Teachers will be given training on how to deal with bullying.

    They’ll also ensure that new guidance is issued on relationships and LGBT-inclusive sex education.

    Crime: Labour pledges to bring the law on LGBT hate crimes into line with hate crimes based on race and faith, by making them aggravated offences.

    Workplace: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: Labour has pledged that it will work to “reverse the damage done to mental health services under this Tory government, which is particularly hitting services for LGBT and BAME communities”.

    Various charities have gone by the wayside or had massive funding cuts during the latest government. Some of these cuts have affected charities which include much-needed HIV care.

    Labour also pledges that frontline healthcare professionals receive ongoing training to understand and meet the needs of LGBT patients and service users.

    And PrEP? Well, they pledge that “NHS England completes the trial programme to provide PrEP as quickly as possible, and fully roll out the treatment to high-risk groups to help reduce HIV infection”.

    In politics: They pledge to reform the Gender Recognition Act, which will protect trans people by changing the protected characteristic of ‘gender assignment’ to ‘gender identity’. They also pledge to remove outdated language such as “transexual”.

    On the world stage: Labour have announced that they will “appoint dedicated global ambassadors for women’s rights, LGBT rights and religious freedom to fight discrimination and promote equality globally”

     

    LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 5

    Education: The Lib Dems have promised to review sex education in schools saying that they will include lessons on sexual consent, LGBT+ relationships and issues surrounding explicit images and content.

    Crime: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Workplace: The Lib Dems want companies with more than 250 employees to publish data on their employment of BAMEs LGBTs and pay gaps.

    Healthcare: The Liberal Democrats have promised to ensure that “LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support”. They also want to make PrEP available on the NHS.

    In politics: The Lib Dems pledge to introduce legislation that will allow for all-BAME and all LGBT+ parliamentary shortlists.

    On the world stage: The Liberal Democrats pledge a commitment to promoting the “decriminalisation of homosexuality around the world and advancing the cause of LGBT+ rights”.

    UKIP

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 1

    n education: UKIP will end sex education in primary schools. Will look into whether further legislation is required to tackle cyberbullying.

    On health: Nothing specific to the LGBT+ community, but promised to increase funding for mental health. Will also hold a review into editorial codes of the media, to promote “healthy body images”.

    On politics: UKIP pledge to test the social attitudes of those who are seeking to immigrate to the UK. They wrote,

    “…we do not believe in treating women or gay people as second-class citizens, and we hold to a fundamental belief in democracy and free speech. UKIP’s points-based immigration system will, therefore, include one further major principle: we will test the social attitudes of migration applicants to foster community cohesion and protect core British values”.

    UKIP also will repeal Labour’s Human Rights legislation and remove the UK from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights”. They will replace with a new UK Bill of rights.

    On crime: Nothing specific to the LGBT+ community.

    On the world stage: Nothing specific to the LGBT+ community

    THE GREEN PARTY

    Number of mentions of LGBT: Have released an entirely separate LGBT+ Manifesto.

    They have released an entire LGBT+ manifesto. Which includes the following pledges:

    Education: Sexual and relationship education for all students. Require every school to have an anti-bullying programme. Provide teachers with training to provide LGBT+ inclusive education.

    Crime: Greens pledge to “Combat all forms of antiLGBTIQA+ prejudice and violence through improved hate crime protections”.

    Workplace: Noting specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: Wide-ranging policies affecting the Trans and Intersex community. Including, giving people “personal autonomy in all medical decisions” and “Improve access to medical services and gender identity clinics, particularly for trans and non-binary young people.” They have said they would also, “Protect the welfare state in the face of Government cuts and preserve the vital security net many LGBTIQA+ people rely upon”.

    In politics: Has pledged to make same-sex marriage “truly equal” to include pension rights. They will also open civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples. Will “Apologise to and pardon all 50,000–100,000 people convicted of consenting adult same-gender sexual relations under antisodomy laws that have now been repealed.”

    On the world stage: The Greens have said, “The Green Party would speak out against those countries that discriminate against, marginalise and kill LGBTIQA+ citizens, and work with countries leading the way in recognising and protecting” the LGBT+ community.

    SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 5

    Education: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Crime: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Workplace: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: The SNP will support efforts to ensure PrEP becomes available on NHS to any who needs it in the UK.

    In politics: The SNP pledge to push the UK Government to extend the Turing Bill pardon to gay men convicted of same-sex activity who are still alive today.

    They also pledge to ensure that same-sex couple have equal pension rights and “protected characteristics are expanded to ensure all LGBTI people are fully protected from discrimination and harassment”.

    On the world stage: The SNP pledge to reform the detention and asylum system for LGBT+ people escaping countries where homosexuality is still illegal. They also pledge to remove “unfair and invasive demands for ‘proof’ of sexuality or gender identity”.

    They also say,

    “SNP MPs will support the establishment of a special envoy to promote the rights of LGBTI people throughout the world, as an integral part of UK foreign policy – helping to alleviate the discrimination and persecution faced by LGBTI people in Chechnya and across the world”.

    Plaid Cymru

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 0

    Education: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Crime: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Workplace: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: No specific mention of healthcare reforms for LGBT people – including PrEP.

    In politics: Has pledged to publish a “human rights charter” to provide human rights regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation.

    On the world stage: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Democratic Unionist Party

    Number of mentions of LGBT: 0

    Education: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Crime: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Workplace: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    Healthcare: No specific mention of healthcare reforms for LGBT people – including PrEP.

    In politics: Nothing specific to LGBT+

    On the world stage: Nothing specific to LGBT+

  • What has Theresa May’s Conservative Manifesto promised to LGBT people?

    The Conservatives are the latest party to reveal their manifesto, so we’re delved into the paperwork to find out what the Conservatives have promised and pledged to the LGBT+ community of the United Kingdom.

    Typing the term “LGBT” into the Conservative’s 2017 Manifesto the reader receives zero results, unlike the Liberal Democrats, which delivered 5 results and Labour’s which delivered 11. The Green Party have published an entire manifesto just for LGBT people in the UK.

    However not specifically the Conservatives have pledged:

    On education

    The Conservatives pledge to introduce “comprehensive” sex and relationship education but fails to mention any specifics to LGBT sex or relationships. “We will educate today’s young people in the harms of the internet and how best to combat them, introducing comprehensive Relationships and Sex Education in all primary and secondary schools to ensure that children learn about the risks of the internet, including cyberbullying and online grooming”.

    On Crime

    On hate crime the Conservatives promise to be tougher on hate crime, they say,  “…we will push forward with our plan for tackling hate crime committed on the basis of religion, disability, sexual orientation or transgender identity”.

    On the world stage

    The Conservatives have pledged, “We will be the world’s foremost champion of free trade. We will expand our global efforts to combat extremism, terror, and the perpetration of violence against people because of their faith, gender or sexuality”.

     

  • THE BIG GAY ELECTION | Interview: Stephen Doughty

    Stephen Doughty has served as the MP for Cardiff South and Penarth since winning a by-election in 2012. He has since distinguished himself amongst his colleagues, serving first as Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry. Following a reshuffle, he took up a brief as a Shadow Foreign Minister – which he famously resigned from live on the BBC following a disagreement with Jeremy Corbyn over the sacking of Shadow Minister Pat McFadden in January 2016.

    Stephen Doughty openly gay Labour MP

    THEGAYUK Magazine was fortunate enough to talk to Mr Doughty last week. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    THEGAYUK: First things first – Labour’s draft manifesto leaked last night, and it proves to be the most leftwing in a generation, promising to nationalise the railways and eliminate tuition fees, for example. Are you excited or apprehensive about selling this on the doorstep?
    Stephen Doughty: Well we have a slightly different situation where I’m standing, in Wales, because Welsh labour already launched our manifesto pledges earlier in the week with Carwyn Jones, the Welsh Labour leader. So we’ve already set out our stall here very clearly. We’ve got five pledges: one on the NHS, one on schools, one on housing, one on the economy, and one on police. Those are very much messages I’ve been going on the doorstep with already, as well as my own local record. So in terms of wider manifestos and leaks, obviously until the actual manifesto is published I prefer not to comment.

    TGUK: Last year you had a constituent tell you that gay people should be killed and sent to hell. As one of the higher-profile openly gay MPs, do you experience a lot of homophobia (whether online or on the doorstep)?
    SD: I’ve had some pretty unpleasant comments from a local blogger, as well as people who support the far-right BNP to post homophobic material. I’ve had comments on the doorstep, and I had a UKIP candidate that sent veiled homophobic letters to constituents in the last election, saying things like that I didn’t stand up for family values and the like, which we know are dog whistles for homophobic views. Unfortunately, all MPs over the last few years have suffered significant amounts of personal abuse, no matter what party they’re from. If you’re a woman, if you’re gay, if you’re black, if your Jewish, you’re likely to have received some additional abuse and so it gets very unpleasant.

    TGUK: You’ve been famously critical of Jeremy Corbyn. How are you addressing this as you campaign? How is this going for you?
    SD: I’ve got no personal disputes with Jeremy. We’ve always got on very well on the personal level and have a number of issues where we have a lot of common ground. But I have been willing to speak my own mind when it comes to a number of issues, particularly where we’ve differed on issues to do with foreign policy and defence.

    You know, it won’t come as any surprise but there have been a wide range of views across the Labour Party on these issues. I also think we’re in a quite different situation, as I said earlier, for those of us standing in places like Wales where, since devolution, we have quite a different set up now.
    We have a Welsh Labour leader in Carwyn Jones who is popular on the doorstep, and we have very distinct policies in Wales. So I make it clear to people that there are many policy areas where I agree with Jeremy, and I think his work where he’s set out on NHS, on housing, on mental health, on a fairer economy, and indeed actually on the railways – I think what he’s setting out is exactly the right policy. But I’ve also made it my clear that I will speak my mind and stand up for the interests of my constituents, and not put my party first but put them first.

    TGUK: Last month, you raised an urgent question on the way gay men in Chechnya are persecuted. The Prime Minister has finally spoken on it. What should the government be doing to promote and protect LGBT rights not just in Russia but around the world, including in Syria?
    SD: I think the government in the last few years has actually downgraded human rights concerns, disappointingly. Over the issues of Chechnya, I was particularly concerned that we haven’t seen a very clear statement from the Prime Minister. We haven’t seen a clear statement from the Foreign Secretary. I think all he’s done is put out a tweet. The reality is that even when we have difficult relationships with countries like Russia, and undoubtedly with Chechnya, we need to be seen to be on the very front foot when it comes to exposing human rights abuses and urging for action to be taken. Britain’s got a proud history of standing up against abuses, and making a difference in the world, but unfortunately, we have a slightly checkered record in recent years when it comes to certain issues. We have to be consistent in standing up for all, for the rights of civilians, the rights of women, and the rights of LGBT people around the world, whether that’s in Syria, whether that’s in Chechnya, whether that’s in Yemen, whether that’s in parts of Africa, and have a consistent approach.

    TGUK: You voted against triggering Article 50, despite the referendum results. Why?
    SD: My constituents voted 60/40 to remain. It was a very clear majority for a remain vote, and indeed in the months afterwards I had a clear majority of constituents with great concerns about the way Theresa May was taking the Brexit negotiations. I’m very clear that I respect the overall result… but we need to ensure we get a fair deal for people in my constituency and people across Wales. There are still far too many unanswered questions about things like funding. You know, we rely a lot on funding for local universities, for infrastructure. Still no word on that from the government on access to the single market for businesses in my local area. The rights of EU citizens who have been here for often decades and on a whole series of other issues.
    At the time, I wasn’t satisfied that the Prime Minister had set out a clear plan or answered those questions. I have pointed out to people that of course if every MP voted the same way as their constituents then you’d still get the same overall result. But we can’t be simply giving a blank cheque to the Prime Minister to go down a very hard Brexit route. We must find the best deal for people. It’s important that there are a number of MPs who stand up and hold her feet to the fire.

    TGUK: You talk about getting the best deal, and so many of the victories in LGBT equality we’ve accomplished have been through European mechanisms. How do we ensure those European laws and rulings protecting LGBT rights are enshrined in UK law post-Brexit?
    I made very clear that we can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to whether that’s the rights of minority groups, whether that’s workers rights, whether that’s environmental protections. I am concerned that we are headed down a route of quite an ideological, hard, I call reckless Brexit, rather one that retains the very best of some of the protections that we’ve worked on a Pan-European level to achieve. And that’s why it’s important that there are members of parliament that are willing to speak up and ensure that those rights and freedoms are protected.

    TGUK: You filed an early day motion to ban Donald Trump from speaking to the House of Commons. As you may be able to tell from my accent, I’m American. Whether we like it or not, Trump is the democratically elected president of the United States. How should the government handle relations with him?
    SD: I was very clear that I wasn’t in favour of banning the President from coming to the UK or having relationships with the UK government. Clearly, as one of our longest and oldest allies, we need to have a constructive and positive relationship with the United States. Recognising that it’s not just the president but a whole series of individual state governments and other parts of the administration. However, I was very clear that we choose who we honour, and offering a full state visit with all the pomp and circumstance and carriages down the mall and an address to the joint houses of parliament is something that is earned, and it’s something that’s given by choice.

    …I don’t think we should be offering up that honour to somebody who has a very checkered record on fundamental freedoms, on sexism, on racism, on the treatment of minority groups. And I think it was a mistake for that to be suggested, to be offered, and Parliament spoke very, very clearly, as did the Speaker of the House of Commons

    TGUK: I want to shift focus a little and ask about sex and relationship education. Her Majesty gave royal assent to a bill making it mandatory, but it doesn’t mandate LGBT issues be taught. Will we ever get LGBT-inclusive PSHE?
    SD: Well I hope so. And certainly, I was part of a group of MPs working particularly with my colleague Stella Creasy arguing for the most inclusive and positive sex and relationships education and a number of others

    TGUK: That was a cross-party group, right?
    SD: Yeah that was a cross-party group. A number of sponsored amendments and pushed forward an inclusive agenda. Again, it’s slightly complex. As a Welsh MP, education is devolved. The decisions about our curriculum are made in Wales. But I’ve always been of the belief that you need age appropriate but inclusive sex and relationships education that reflects the realities of life and the realities of the modern world. When you have a situation where there are still far too many young LGBT people who are bullied, excluded, or in worse cases physically or psychologically harassed or harmed, we need to be setting the very best standards.

    TGUK: Wales does have an LGBT curriculum, correct?
    SD: Yes. Again, it’s age appropriate. But we have a pretty inclusive curriculum here. But again the curriculum is constantly under review. And we have a different system here because we don’t have the same diversity of schools. We haven’t gone down the route of grammars and free schools and new religious schools and things like that.

    TGUK: I guess, I’m going to segue off that question. What can England learn from Wales?
    SD: One of the reasons we have our own distinctive pledges and manifesto in Wales is because we have taken a very different approach when it comes to things like healthcare and education and other issues. We haven’t had a doctor’s strike in Wales. We haven’t had a costly reorganisation of the NHS. We spend 6% higher on health and social care per head of population in Wales than in England. We haven’t gone down the route of having grammar schools. We’ve actually been building new schools and new hospitals.

    The Prime Minister is quite keen to come down and rubbish Wales on a regular basis, but the actual difference is now being felt and recognised by the people of Wales. People do now recognise that distinction and what a difference having a Welsh Labour government makes.

    TGUK: You mention the Prime Minister rubbishing Wales, but the Conservative vote is growing. Does that concern you at all?
    SD: Yeah. One of the difficulties you do have in Wales is that we don’t have a strong and distinct national media, as say in example in Scotland. So a lot of people do engage with a lot of English focused newspapers and broadcasts. Obviously, that reads across into what people are raising on the doorstep and talking about. It is concerning to see the Conservatives doing so well in the polls. However last year the pundits had us losing significant numbers of seats in the National Assembly elections. This year they had us losing significant numbers of seats in the local council elections. And we defied the pundits both times.

    TGUK: What’s the most pressing issue facing the LGBT community in this election?
    SD: To pick one issue I think is very difficult because whilst there are distinct issues facing the LGBT community, members of the LGBT community are human beings and voters just like anybody else. They’re going to have the same concerns about healthcare, education, housing, benefits policy, state of the economy. There’s always a bit of a danger in separating us out too distinctly.

    However, I think certainly one of the issues I’ve come across has been that we have legal equality now in the country. I was very proud to vote on the bill that introduced equal marriage, and sort of fought for many of those last blocks in the inequality picture over the last few years, building on the amazing work others have done over the decades. The real challenge now is to make sure those laws are implemented, that attitudes are changed and that we deal with the stigma that a lot of young people face still in many parts of the country. And in relation to places like Chechnya that we stand as a beacon for LGBT rights and equality in the world. We’ve had the largest number of LGBT parliamentarians in the last Parliament. We’ve taken the most decisive steps on legal equality. We need to now be using our good offices and intent to sell that example to the rest of the world.

  • What has Tim Farron’s Lib Dem manifesto promised LGBT people

    The Liberal Democrats are the latest political party to unveil their manifesto ahead of June’s snap General Election. We find out what pledges have been made to the UK’s LGBT community.

    The Liberal Democrats manifesto mentions “LGBT” just five times unlike Labour’s which mentioned it 11 times. So what are the promises and pledges should the Lib Dems become our next Government.

    Healthcare

    The Liberal Democrats have promised to ensure that “LGBT+ inclusive mental health services receive funding and support”. They also want to make PrEP available on the NHS.

    Education

    The Lib Dems have promised to review sex education in schools saying that they will include lessons on sexual consent, LGBT+ relationships and issues surrounding explicit images and content.

    Workplace

    The Lib Dems want companies with more than 250 employees to publish data on their employment of BAMEs LGBTs and pay gaps.

    Politics

    The Lib Dems pledge to introduce legislation that will allow for all-BAME and all LGBT+ parliamentary shortlists.

    On the world stage

    The Liberal Democrats pledge a commitment to promoting the “decriminalisation of homosexuality around the world and advancing the cause of LGBT+ rights”.