THEGAYUK

Tag: Jeremy Corbyn

All the latest breaking news on Jeremy Corbyn. Browse THEGAYUK’s complete collection of news, articles and commentary on Jeremy Corbyn.

  • COMMENT | What Jeremy Corbyn Has Already Done For The Gay Community

    Many of my gay chums often tell me they are not “into politics”. Personally, I’ve always often thought this was a bit odd because I’ve always thought of being gay and being political as going hand in hand.

    We have long had things to fight for in the name of fairness and equality and pressure to put on those in power; the long struggle for equal marriage being just one example in recent history.

    But politics, especially that coming straight out of Westminster, leaves many cold. And after the recession and all that nasty MP’s expenses business then is it any wonder?

    Even if you despise all things political though, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn has been inescapable. And somewhere in the media storm and the thousands of words written about him, there is one announcement that is both very welcome and hugely long overdue.

    In unveiling his Shadow Cabinet team, Corbyn named Luciana Berger as the very first Shadow Minister For Mental Health.

    Here we need some context: a University of Cambridge study published in September 2014 found that 12 percent of lesbian women and almost 19 percent of bisexual women reported mental health problems, compared with six percent of heterosexual women. Also, 11 percent of gay men and 15 percent of bisexual men reported problems, compared to five percent of heterosexual men.

    It’s pretty clear that mental health is an area of huge importance to the continued wellbeing of us all in the LGB community. However long waiting times for an initial hospital consultation and the postcode lottery that results in standards of care being entirely dependent on where you live continue to be a big problem.

    And we all know that the Conservative policy of austerity has led to funding cuts to many organisations that were previously there to provide support and advice.

    Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here; the appointment of a Shadow Minister is in no way the miracle cure to solve the problem with the current state of care. And to be brutally realistic, we still have a government in power who plan on cutting public services yet more in the next few years. Not a great sign that an already difficult situation will get easier anytime soon. But at least for once we can say with certainty that a political party is actually taking it seriously rather than paying lip service with a brief paragraph in the manifesto at election time.

    So yes, these are politicians we are talking about. And we’ve all learnt not to trust them right? So it could turn out to be a naïve hope but just maybe the appointment of Luciana Berger means that with the closer scrutiny a designated minister should bring, there just might be a grown up conversation about mental health care in this country.

    Yes. I did say it was possibly a naïve hope.

    But mental health matters. Given the statistics it is a topic that touches all of us in the gay community, if not personally then chances are through our closest friends and families.

    And that is true, whether you are “into politics” or not.

    Views expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its editorial team and owners. As part of our mission statement, we have published this comment piece as part of our open platform. If you’d like to reply please use the comment section below and if you’d like to write an opinion piece please visit: www.thegayuk.com/Submit

     

  • 6 Things We Learnt This Week, Janice Dickinson to Jeremy Corbyn

    This week has been a week of wonder… One that could either lead to greatness or mayhem. From Janice Dickinson promising to be a surrogate mother, to Jeremy Corbyn’s election as the new Labour leader.

    1) Janice promises to be Austin Armacost and Jake Lee’s surrogate for any child they may have in the future… This is an interesting concept and won that we think would make an excellent reality TV show.

    2) The first ever “test-tube baby” Louise Brown is delighted that gay couples can use IVF to start familes.

    3) Elton John reaches out to President Putin to discuss ‘ridiculous’ anti-gay prejudice. According to The Guardian the Rocket Man has asked for 5 with the Russian Prez. We await the outcome. If Elton can achieve the melt down he did for Dolce And Gabbana, maybe there could be so movement, then against probs not.

    4) This news site based in the deeply homophobic country of Nigeria suggests women could and should strap on a dildo and screw their men. Unsurprisingly the men in the poll aren’t so sure.

    5) Jeremy Corbyn, who has voted pro gay issues since his induction as an MP, has been voted in as the new Labour leader.

    6) The Daily Mail, thinks that Brits have won a “war” because famous women over the age of 70 haven’t had plastic surgery,

  • BREAKING: “Consistently” Pro Gay Jeremy Cobryn Voted As The New Labour Leader

    Jeremy Corbyn has been voted in as the new leader of Labour in a landslide election result.

    Jeremy Corbyn has been voted in as the new leader of the Labour party. Mr. Corbyn is an MP who has, according to theyworkforyou.com “consistently” voted for equal gay rights dating back to 1998 when he voted pro on lowering the age of consent to match heterosexuals.

    He got 59% of first preference votes (251,417 votes) – which was 40% more than Mr Burnham who was his nearest rival at 19%. Ms. Cooper was third on 17% and Ms. Kendal coming in with only 4.5% of the vote.

    Jeremy Corbyn beat Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall to the top, after the leadership contest was sparked due to Ed Miliband’s departure following a crushing defeat in the general elections. Tom Watson has been elected the new deputy Labour leader.

    According to the BBC 422,664 votes were cast.

    LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 10: Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and candidate in the Labour Party leadership election, speaks to supporters at the Rock Tower on September 10, 2015 in London, England. Voting closed in the Labour Party leadership contest with the results of which due to be announced on…

     

    The MP for Islington North secured 59.5% of the vote in a landslide election, which sees the left-winger politician become the new leader of labour.

  • 6 Weird Things: Gay Lingerie, Gary Barlow Naked, Jeremy Corbyn, Belinda Carlisle

    We love searching through the analytics to see what brought people to THEGAYUK, here are the 6 weirdest searches – from Gay Lingerie to Gay Foxes to Jeremy Corbyn, that brought people to our website last week.

    Gay Lingerie. Yes, apparently it’s a thing, although we’re not convinced that it’s specifically gay… more like male lingerie… We ran a story about it back in May.

    Gary Barlow Naked. Some people want to find naked pictures of Gary Barlow – and we’re not judging them for that.

    Fox gay animals. Yes it’s not just humans who have sexuality… Animals do to… You won’t believe which is the gayest!

    Belinda Carlisle Plastic Surgery. We spoke with Ms. Carlisle about her beauty regime and she swears that her youthful good looks are down, purely to, clean living.

    Gay one night stand tips. Oh we have those One Night Stand tips for you… Just remember to be safe!

    How LGBT is Jeremy Corbyn… Funny you should ask, we listed how pro-LGBT all the labour leader candidates were here.

  • COMMENT | Why Jeremy Corbyn is the best option for LGBT Brits

    Over the weekend, a video quietly dropped on YouTube in which revellers at this summer’s London Pride explained why they are backing Jeremy Corbyn for the next Labour leader:

    “He supported gay rights before anyone else supported us,” one young man explains, pointing out that Corbyn has “never voted against gay rights.”

     

    He’s right. Corbyn has voted against every anti-LGBT bill and for every advance in LGBT equality since he entered parliament in 1983, making him the only candidate who both opposed Section 28 and supported equal marriage. That’s an impressive ally, which is one reason why prominent LGBT activists from Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners’ Mike Jackson to the Guardian columnist Owen Jones have publicly backed Corbyn’s campaign.

    Like them, I’m proud to support Jeremy Corbyn for Labour Leader. And like them, my support is for reasons far beyond up-and-down votes for our equality. Mr Corbyn unequivocally opposes austerity, which is much more than can be said for his opponents, none of whom walked through division to oppose the Tory Welfare Bill, a chainsaw massacre of the welfare state and public services which leaves the most vulnerable in British society out in the lurch.

    At first blush, this may seem inconsequential to our community; equality and austerity, you shrug, are separate issues. Two studies conducted over the last three years, though, suggest otherwise. In 2013, UNISON—the public sector trade union—commissioned a study on how austerity has effected the LGBT community. The findings were startling: not only did LGBT people face “greater financial hardships from redundancies, real term pay cuts and changes to benefit rules,” but that austerity had led to “greater feelings of marginalisation and invisibility as specialist LGBT services and support disappeared.” Last year, the Trade Unions Congress, in their own commissioned report, found that LGBT volunteer and charity services were especially hurt by cuts in public spending, with “their already more than averagely impacted service users… particularly vulnerable.”

    Among the most vulnerable are LGBT youth experiencing homelessness. The UNISON study found that cuts to housing benefits, especially amongst the young, were especially difficult on young LGBT people “as they may find it difficult to find a safe and comfortable shared accommodation with flatmates accepting of their sexuality or gender identity.” The Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity which supports LGBT youth experiencing homelessness, earlier this year found that nearly a quarter of homeless British youth identify as LGBT. When the Guardian cited this study in its expose on homelessness amongst LGBT young people back in May, the government hadn’t yet slashed housing benefits for those under 21 and denied under-25s the minimum wage. This is disastrous for young LGBT people who have been kicked out of their homes by homophobic or transphobic parents and may find it difficult to find supportive flatmates, let alone a way to make rent.

    This is but one way austerity has negatively impacted our community. LGBT people are more likely to suffer suicidal ideations and mental health issues, largely due to homophobia and transphobia, than their peers, making cuts to mental health services particularly concerning to our community; even before the Tories had a majority, austerity measures had cut £253 million from the NHS’ Mental Health Trusts. And zero hour contracts have been notoriously bad for our community, especially; the UNISON study reports a trans woman who could no longer afford her transition because she made less on a zero hour contract.

    Which is why Corbyn, with his pledge to end austerity and bring about a more equitable society, is so appealing to so many, especially young people, at a time when youth unemployment is at its highest since the 1990s and LGBT people still face so much discrimination in employment. Corbyn has a vision that resonates, not just with those on the lower rungs of the social ladder, but with those at the top, as well. He is in every respect the peoples’, including LGBT peoples’, candidate.

    This may seem somewhat shocking considering last week I referred to him as having “all the electability and relevance of a Womble.” And my concerns about his abilities as a leader, not just of the Labour Party but of the country, remain. The same can be said, however, for his comeptitors. Not a single one of these candidates inspires confidence. Owen Jones can see Mr Corbyn as a future prime minister. I’m, from a purely strategic point, not sold yet, if only because he is an unproven leader with unproven results. Mr Corbyn has never sat on the front bench, let alone been in government. How he manages to wrangle the Blairites and Brownites within the party is of utmost concern. (But with grand pronouncements from Liz Kendall about refusing to serve in his shadow cabinet and dire predictions from Tony Blair, if the party splinters, it likely won’t be Mr Corbyn holding the sledgehammer.)

    Still, I have more faith in him than in Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, or Andy Burnham. They expected to trample over him, and in all fairness, Mr Corbyn didn’t enter this contest expecting to win. Yet here we are, with the MP from Islington North—a 30+ year backbencher—leading by double digits. Which, when you consider the mood of the British public, shouldn’t surprise any of us.

    As Vice reported last month, Mr Corbyn’s positions on a whole host of issues—from renationalising the railways and utility companies to dismantling Britain’s nuclear arsenal—are more in step with public opinion than any of the other three contenders. And as I wrote in my post-mortem after Ed Miliband’s throttling in the general election, Labour lost because they didn’t run far enough to the left. In these regards, he is just the candidate Labour needs to reclaim Number 10 in 2020.

    And that’s what is most important to the LGBT community. We need to roll back austerity in order to protect the most vulnerable amongst us. We need a champion who has been on our side his entire political career. We need someone with clarity of vision and purity of heart.

    That man is Jeremy Corbyn.

    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 Are The Labour Leadership Contenders?

    As the Labour party prepares to vote on its next leader, we look at the four candidates to see what their gay-friendly credentials are like.

    Andy Burnham
    Burnham has been an MP since 2001, in that time he has good voting record on LGBT+ issues, except Votes on adoption in May 2002, for which he was absent, because of the birth of one of his children and in 2008 he voted for bills which put forward: ‘fertility treatment requires father and mother’ and ‘fertility treatment requires male role model’. Explaining his voting he said to Pinknews in 2010: “Everyone should be able to draw on a father figure and a mother figure. That isn’t to say I don’t support IVF for lesbian couples.”

    Jeremy Corbyn
    Corbyn has been an MP since 1983. He has consistently voted positively for LGBT+ laws and policies. However in 2003 he was absent for the vote on Local Government Bill — Maintain prohibition on promotion of homosexuality (Section 28), he was absent for a vote on Relationships (Civil Registration) and a vote on Adoption and Children Bill (Programme) — Consideration and Third Reading

    Liz Kendall
    A relative newcomer as an MP for the Labour party. Kendall has voted positively for LGBT+ rights since 2010. The same-sex marriage bill is the one major piece of law making she has voted on – for which she voted positively.

    Yvette Cooper
    Cooper has voted positively on every piece of legislation affecting the LGBT community in her time as an MP. She was absent in 2001 for a vote on Relationships (Civil Registration), she was also absent for a vote on Civil Partnerships Bill [Lords] — Third Reading.