Gibraltar’s under the gay gun again. Activist Peter Tatchell took aim at the overseas territory last week when he blasted their allegedly anti-gay discrimination.
Now, European Parliamentarian Michael Cashman’s hoping to strike down Gibraltar’s uneven age of consent laws – and plans on bringing in the big names, like England’s Prime Minister, Gordon Brown:
I will be raising the issue personally with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is a passionate supporter of equality. We have given the Gibraltarian government long enough – now is the time to change the laws.
Those laws grant 16-year heteros the right to fool around, while homos have to wait until they’re 18.
Another activist, Felix Alvarez, says Gibraltar Chief Minister Peter Caruana failed his people – and it’s Brown’s responsibility to set things straight:
By not implementing binding requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights on the age of consent, Mr Caruana is passing the buck to Gordon Brown.
In the end, it will be the British Prime Minister who will have to do Mr Caruana’s work. It’s a scandal that Downing Street has looked the other way for so long…
Alvarez went on to say that if Caruana and his constituents don’t want to be treated like colonies, they need to grow up.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Angus Ogg
Gordon Brown is not the Prime Minister of England.
Jim Watt
Nor does Mr Brown have any mandate to interfere
in the affairs of Gibraltar. That sounds like colonialism to me.
Bill Perdue
Jim Watt.
When the English are back in England and Spain reasserts control colonialism will end. Likewise for Los Malvinas, occupied Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Angus Ogg,
The political construct known as the ‘UK’ is a cover for the reality which is that different cultures and nationalities have been smothered by the English, some for quite a long time.
Charles
I’m afraid Jim Watt has it wrong. The United Kingdom has a very clear mandate indeed to interfere: it’s called its signature on the European Convention of Human Rights, which is a a legally binding international law contract. Under the terms of that signature, the UK must ‘secure’ the provisions of the Convention to its citizens within its jurisdiction. The UK extended the application of the Convention to Gibraltar. That international law obligation is higher than even any international arrangement which the UK parliament may have entered to delegate some of its powers over to the Gibraltar Parliament under its most recent Constitution. The answer to not being treated as mere Colonials is for Gibraltar to ensure that its Government deals legally and morally with its citizens’ rights in a mature and acceptable manner!
Denny
Gordon Brown IS the prime minister of the UK
Jim Watt
I am not arguing for discrimination, however looking at Wikipedia it says, and I quote:
“The United Kingdom Government has declined to sign Protocol 12 on the basis that they believe the wording of protocol is too wide and would result in a flood of new cases testing the extent of the new provision.”
Gibraltar is not part of the UK and the Government of Gibraltar is the competent authority to make laws here not some foreigners who lack a mandate.