April Issue 2010 - Unity Column

As the campaign machines of the political parties are smiling, promising and debating their way to May 6th, the LGBT members of the electorate have no doubt been wondering how the Parties rest on issues of equality, protection and unity. LGBT students are no diff erent and this is aimed as an overview of how each of the three main parties work for our rights.

It is a well known fact that the Labour Party has done a vast amount of work over their last thirteen years in power to ensure British law has entered the world of modern thought. Equalising the age of consent, repealing Section 28, allowing gay couples to adopt and enter into a civil partnership; all of these were passed under the Labour government and all of them have improved the lives of those concerned immeasurably. Yet there are still issues that have fallen by the wayside such as the lifetime ban placed upon gay men so that they can never give

blood and the rather contentious issue of same sex marriages. Maybe Labour has run out of steam with its fight on LGBT issues as there are certainly no signs in their manifesto that we are a priority. Their contribution to the world we know today though, cannot be forgotten .

The Conservatives have never been a popular party with the majority of LGBT

people. The introduction of Section 28 in the 1980’s did more damage to the progress

of equality than any other piece of legislation in known history and their voting record is, frankly, shameful. However, David Cameron has stated time and again that the party has finally modernised with regards to LGBT rights, with the LGBTory group being established in the last decade and even several Tory MP’s actually coming out and declaring that the old Tory Party ideologies were just that, old. Yet this claim has begun to stumble recently a er Mr Cameron expressed ignorance over how his MEP’s have voted against LGBT issues in Brussels. Add to this, reports of Conservative councillors and candidates publicly, if accidentally, being homophobic and the image of a modern Party is failing fast. In an attempt to reclaim their

ground, a press conference was called in which greater equality was promised. Peter Tatchell, the famous LGBT activist, said of the Party aft er the press conference that they were “full of good intentions but very weak on very speci fic gay rights policies. The best [they] could do on gay marriage was say [they] would consider it."

They have never been in power yet the Liberal Democrats have the best voting record on the Acts that have passed through Parliament. As the Party of liberality they have, obviously, always been involved in the ght to gain LGBT rights and they have stated that they will fight

for same sex marriage because “it is impossible to claim gay and straight couples

are treated equally until then.” In spite of this, there is the fact that they have never even been in opposition. A party which has been out of power for so long can find it easy to make promises which could be a far greater challenge to achieve than when they were campaigning. If there is a

Party which can deliver on promises to the LGBT community, though, it would seem

that the Liberal Democrats could follow Labour’s decade plus work on equality.
This is only a very short and simple presentation of the major Parties LGBT

policies. I urge you to read even just a little deeper into theirs and other Parties policies. The website www.mygayvote.co.uk is a concise source of each of the Parties voting records on LGBT matters; see some examples below.
Whatever you do, however you defi ne yourself, please vote.