Gay friendly Tories are just wolves in sheep's clothing

We all know that with this being election year lots of groups are being targeted by political parties, well the Tories are trying to court the pink vote, or LGBT voters.

Well now the "shameful" Tory record on voting for gay rights issues is clear for all to see, and they aren't quite as gay friendly as you may think!

A quarter of David Cameron's shadow cabinet have previously voted against gay rights legislation in the House of Commons.

The research by the Liberal Democrats looked at issues including Section 28, adoption and the age of consent. It lists the voting records of current Tory MPs who will be standing in this year's general election.

One in six current Tory MPs standing for re-election voted in favour of Section 28 back in 1988.

A sixth voted against Section 28's repeal in 2003 including a third of the shadow cabinet. David Cameron, Francis Maude and William Hague were among them.

Yes, that's right, David Cameron voted against the repeal of the most anti gay piece of legislation ever - a complete and utter hypocrite!

One in ten of them voted against reducing the age of consent for gay men from 21 to 18 in 1994.

Almost one in five voted against the Sexual Offences Amendment Bill in 1999 which reduced the age at which anal sex is legal from 18 to 16. Seven of these, including shadow equality minister Theresa May, are in the current Cameron shadow cabinet.

One in three voted to allow only heterosexual married couples to adopt in 2002, including seven members of the current Cameron shadow cabinet.

One in three voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations in March 2007, which allows the Secretary of State to make regulations defining discrimination and harassment on grounds of sexual orientation. This included 33 – a third – of frontbenchers and four members of the shadow cabinet.

Nineteen members of Cameron's shadow cabinet joined an attempt to block the Equality Bill which would introduce a single ‘public duty’ requiring all publicly-funded bodies to proactively promote equality.

Of the 31 shadow cabinet members, ten voted at least once against gay equality. One, the shadow Europe minister, Mark Francois, voted against repealing Section 28, allowing gay couples to adopt and 2007's Sexual Orientation Regulations. He also joined the attempt to block the Equality Bill.

The Tory record on supporting gay rights is nothing short of shameful. David Cameron cannot pretend a quick apology for Section 28 will make up for the entrenched and often bigoted views of his hand-picked frontbench colleagues in the House of Commons.

David Cameron and the Conservatives like to pretend that they have changed but they remain the same old Tories.

Can you imagine what will happen to gay rights if they win the general election later this year?

Conservatives, the Waffen SS and homophobia - Will Andrew Marr quiz David Cameron?

I have done a lot of gay related Tory bashing this week - rightly bloody so though.

David Cameron stands there on TV and talks about change and how his Party has changed, absolute crap (sorry, I meant to say bol**cks), his Party has not changed one tiny bit.

His MEPs abstained when the vote took place on the Lithuanians bringing in their own version of Section 28 (although in reality much worse than the Tory version) but this is his group of MPs who sit in a new group in Brussels which contains homophobic right wing fascists and yet David Cameron is happy with that!

The group the Conservatives sit in Brussels with are aligned with the Latvian For Fatherland and freedom party that participates in an event commemorating the Latvian Waffen SS, and the Brussels group is led by Poland's Michal Kaminski a man who has his own chequered past on racism and homophobia.

You can also read over at Liberal Conspiracy about how "David Cameron’s Conservative Party now sits in the European Parliament with the European Reformists and Conservatives group (ECR), led by Poland’s Michal Kaminski – a man allegedly with a racist and homophobic past.

"But so far it has gone unreported that another ally of the Conservatives in Europe has a much more serious and recent record of homophobia. Valdemar Tomasevski, MEP from Lithuania, and member of the Tories’ Euro coalition, is on record as having branded homosexuality a "perversion". Not only that, I can now reveal for the first time that he also personally voted for a Lithuanian law that has been described as a harsher, more wide-reaching version of Britain’s Section 28."

Then there was Roger Helmer, Conservative MEP for the East Midlands who claimed homophobia doesn't exist. Read the blog post.

Then there was the vote about the above mentioned Lithuanian Section 28 where the Conservative hypocritical British MEPs abstained. Read the blog post.

Then there was the time when the Leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, Councillor Richard Eddy criticised a local LGBT group for receiving a Big Lottery Fund grant saying it was misguided. Read the blog post.

As you can see there is a recurring theme, the Tories have NOT changed, they are as deeply homophobic as they always have been, they just hid it for a while.

So will Andrew Marr have the balls to question David Cameron on the Waffen SS links and the homophobes in his party? Only time will tell.

Conservatives are complete hypocrites on LGBT issues as Section 28 raises its ugly head again

Do you remember Section 28, Clause 28 or even Section 2A? That awful piece of legislation introduced by the Conservatives back in 1988 prevented the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Thankfully it was repealed in Scotland on 21 June 2000 and then across the rest of the UK on 18 November 2003 – although living in Kent in 2004 was bad enough when the Conservative controlled County Council introduced their own mini-version of Section 28!

To be precise, the Act said; “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

Blimey, still after all of these years just reading this is making my blood boil and reminding me why I really do hate the Conservative Party so much. They caused so many people from the LGBT community to take their own lives, including young people who were still at school who were battling with discovering their own sexuality.

I cannot begin to even think how I would have dealt with that on top of the pressure of coming out, telling your closest friends, your family, worrying about the ridicule at school, college or even work. I was lucky, by 1988, when I was 20, I had come out to my family and friends and on the whole everyone was very accepting. It is funny now to think back and recall just how camp I was then – thankfully that was just a phase I was going through.

Now, you maybe wondering where this blog post is actually going?

Well Lithuania’s national Parliament has amended some of its legislation titled ‘Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information’ in order to ban and even criminalise material that ‘agitates for homosexual or bisexual relations’ or ‘defies family values’ from schools, youth clubs, public places and media likely to be viewed by children.

Homophobia is alive and well in the world we live in and while there are those of us intent on campaigning for better human rights related to sexual orientation discrimination and to stamp out bullying, including homophobic bullying there are always those who won’t vote for these things.

Including David Cameron’s Conservatives.

Firstly, it is absolutely appalling that an EU Member State thinks it is acceptable to introduce such blatant discriminatory legislation that will only exclude the LGBT community further.

Secondly, it is even more appalling that the British Conservative MEPs abstained from this vote.

WARNING – the blood is really boiling now!

How can people in this country trust the Conservatives? How can any gay person vote for them or even worse be a paid up member? How can anyone from the LGBT community trust Cameron or any of his candidates? They don’t practice what they preach.

Like the SNP in Scotland they will say anything to get elected, but they should be judged on their actions and here their actions are clear, they do not support they LGBT community, rather than send Lithuania a clear message that their homophobic attitude will not be tolerated in this day and age the Conservatives decided really to back it, because by abstaining they have sent a message of support. Is this because of their new grouping in the European Parliament? Are they frightened of their new Group throwing them out if they don’t support their extreme views?

Our own MEPs as always were on the button and sponsored the resolution in which the European Parliament voted by a large majority to condemn this new anti-gay legislation introduced in Lithuania. However, the British Conservative MEPs abstained in the vote, showing their sheer hypocrisy on gay issues.

David Cameron really is putting the Con back into Conservatives.

I urge everyone who reads this to email David Cameron direct on and tell him what you think, challenge him to state why yet again his Party is split on gay issues and as we can see here the window dressing is not covering up what they really believe.

Tell David Cameron what you think. I have already.

This blog post is also on Lib Dem Voice.

Conservative Party to prioritise gay rights

What a load of pish, come on Cameron, you were involved in manifesto and policy production when your Conservative Party gave us Section 28, I don't recall you fighting for the Gays then.

Oh, that's right you weren't trying to get into power were you, you knew you were out of touch still and were not going to win.

Stonewall has always been a home for Labour, which is why I have cancelled my Membership (twice), they make all the promises that they are inclusive of all political parties but it is a load of rubbish and so is Cameron's rhetoric today.

I will never forget the hatred that Section 28 created and the hype that the Conservatives took part in and still do today, Conservative controlled Kent County Council wanted to introduce their own version of Section 28.

So, no the Conservatives aren't prioritising gay rights and never will, but they will (like their Scottish bedfellows the SNP) say anything just to get elected.