Thought he curiously left The Gays out of a recent big talker speech, Tory leader David Cameron is trying rilly rilly hard to reassure Britain’s homos that the Conservative Party is here for them!
In a wide-ranging interview with Pink News, Cameron insisted his party, if put in power, wouldn’t seek to reverse gay adoption legislation, would consider LGBT asylum cases, would continue celebrating gay pride at Downing Street, would battle homophobic school bullying, and, while not coming out for full marriage equality, would continue to support same-sex civil partnerships as the legal equivalent.
Some three hundred protesters in London didn’t care about any of that.
Vince
Same old Tories hiding behind the shiney face of the Eaton Educated toff that has never voted strongly for any Equality issues in his history as an MP let alone leader of the Opposition. A man that has no contorl over his MP’s or MEP’s. A party with no clear policies for Equality other than we will look at it when we are in power. Please for the love of god ppl stop pretending that the Tories (Conservative’s) are a viable option. They’ve had 13yrs to modernise and change; granted the man at the top talks th talk but the rest of them keep falling foul of there own bias and homophobic credentials
fubar
Not that I’m defending the Tories, but at least in the UK they have gotten to a place where the bigots at least have to pretend they are not bigots.
The right in the US still runs on bastardizing us. I guess that means the UK has progressed???
Vince
Ah well you may not know too much about the BNP… very entertaining party that has its roots in being ‘White Only’ and anti-gay. They are most def on the far right. What is funny is the current leader of the BNP (Nick Griffin) who has pulled them away from their National Front roots has been linked to a under-aged gay sex scandal of his own. Him being the under-aged participant.
Robert, NYC
Fubar, the conservative (tory) party in the UK is far different from its American counterpart, the GOP, it has evolved a lot more than the GOP could ever do and doesn’t have any teabagger style fraction or religious zealots calling the shots. That said, although Cameron hasn’t exactly come out in favor of marriage equality, 61% of the British public actually support it, a higher figure than we find in the U.S.. One of Cameron’s key people, George Osborne, recently had a meeting with activist Peter Tatchell and was asked about marriage equality. The response was that it would be “considered” if they’re elected. True evolution on their part would have been unequivocal support for it prior to the election on May 6, a missed opportunity to attract gay voters from Labour (Democrats). Contrast that with our own GOP where there is zero support. If the tories actually do implement marriage equality, its going to make it harder for the GOP to ignore it. NOM will be in a state of apoplexy. The vast majority of the Labour party would support marriage equality if the Tories beat them to it, they’d have no choice.
Symonds
Cameron has made a few gaffes, but nothing nearly as serious as Labour would have you believe. I’ll tell you why the Labour party wants you to think this is such a big deal: they’re absolutely TERRIFIED of a political environment where gay people aren’t forced in to a particular party by virtue of being gay.
In the States, you choose between the party that’s not moving on gay rights and the party that will call you an abomination that’s ruining the country. The Democratic Party wants nothing more than to keep it this way- they don’t have to worry about what your economic views are, they don’t have to worry how you feel about abortion. Well adjusted gay man? Bam, vote’s in the bag. Not only are they not going to move on gay rights issues because of this- they have every reason to delay the advent of a just society as long as possible.
If the Tories make real legislative headway while they court the gay vote, expect maybe ten years before every one of our issues and then some become the rule of law. Conservatives and liberals will be RACING to the finish line, just to be the ones in the history books who finally made a reality out of equality.
Robert, NYC
No. 5 Symonds, the only way the Tory party is going to gain more gay votes is to take advantage of the marriage equality issue. It would decimate a lot of the traditional gay support the Labour party has taken for granted for a number of years on this one issue alone. There are far more gay supporters of marriage equality in the UK than StonewallUK and gay supporters of the tories think there are. Cameron and Osborne should be paying close attention to that and not dismiss it as a possible consideration. It would be a perfect political strategy to woo more gay voters than they could possibly imagine.
Nick
The Conservatives are better than the Republicans, no doubt. Labour are better than the Democrats, no doubt. And our third and influential party, the Liberal Democrats (who over a fifth of the electorate will vote for), are even better than both of them, supporting full gay equality.
But the Conservatives are NOT good enough for the UK on the matter of gay equality. They are out of touch with the majority of the British public and are completely unrepresentative of it (although it should be noted that there are several gay tories, god knows why). If they come into power, they won’t withdraw civil partnerships or gay adoption, but they might claw back on some of the rights within those. For example, it is likely religious adoption agencies will be abled to discriminate against gay couples (they’re not currently), religious schools will continue to teach that being gay is a sin, lesbians rights to IVF will be reversed, homophobia in schools, councils and the police will increase etc.
It will suck. The gay rights movement will come to a hault and gradually start to reverse. BUT the situation will still be better than America and other countries, and I guess that’s something to be grateful for.
Paschal
@Vince: MEPs (members of the European Parliament) don’t follow a party whip, unlike MPs. David Cameron himself voted in favour of civil partnerships and a majority of Conservative MPs who voted did also (a substantial number didn’t vote at all). The Conservatives have changes but I’d still vote for Labour or the Liberal Democrats.
Paschal
@Paschal: *changed
Vince
@PASCHAL: Granted MEP’s do not follow the Westminster Party whip; but you can bet ure bottom dollar that the Conservative Party doesn’t allow their party funded MEP’s to act as an independant body. Espically when thier actions have had such influence on the home party.
http://mygayvote.co.uk/
is a good page to see the Tory voting record on Equality.
robert
If you read that interview in detail, you’ll see he dissembles on most of the serious questions. All in all, a very unsatisfactory response.
What a lot of people are wondering is, if he gets into power, will the right-wing of his party stage a coup and effectively take over policy? If so, all his pro-equality talk will come to nothing.
Nick
Unless there is a tory landslide, I don’t think the right-wing of his party will have too much influence over policy, although of course, they will have more than now.
The polls have been predicting a hung parliament for months now, so fingers crossed, even if the tories do gain power, they won’t have enough to be as right-wing as a lot of them would like to be.
Alexa
It helps that the UK doesn’t have as many religious zealots as the US. Not Christian ones, anyway. From what my British ex says, the Conservatives are actually better on gay rights nowadays than the Dems in the US are.
tjr101
@Alexa: Thats precisely what I was thinking. The Tories look a lot like the Democratic party here in the US when it comes to social issues. This just goes to show how far to the right American politics has become. The conservative Tories in the UK would be “liberal” democrats in the US.
Vince
@tjr101: I think the important word there is ‘looks’ like. They are all about the spin at the moment; and very low on the actual policy or commitment
Bob71350
No. 13 Alexa….equality issues for gay people in America aren’t even on the map as far as the republican party is concerned. Their own Log Cabin gay republicans aren’t even allowed to address party political conventions because the party believes its perfectly fine to discriminate against gay people. They resemble nothing in regard to our Tory party, not that I’m a supporter, nor of Labour until both demonstrate a commitment to FULL equality. “Considering” an issue once elected to me is nothing more than offencive. If either party were truly committed to our full equality, they wouldn’t be considering anything but acting to make it happen. Neither do, just like the democrats in America.