Received this email yesterday addressed to the Lib Dem LGBT Group from Professor Robert Wintemute who is an expert on human rights law at King's College and a resident of Vauxhall. Robert has given permission for me to publish this on my blog. It does point out some of the inconsistencies in the Lib Dem position on LGBT rights. I have clearly mentioned homophobic hate crime on my election leaflets and also assisted in the drafting of the Green Party's LGBT manifesto which Robert refers to.
I also note the characterisation of the Vauxhall candidates in yesterday's Lurking about SE11 blog, which has now found its way into the Guardian. I am glad that my support for LGBT rights is mentioned and also that Kate Hoey's reactionary position on this is exposed - Kate's voting record has been closer to that of the Tories on this issue.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/davehillblog/2010/apr/21/lurking-about-se11-blog-vauxhall-election-candidates
Dear DELGA,
"I support gay marriage. Love is the same, straight or gay, so the civil institution should be the same, too. All couples should be able to make that commitment to one another." Nick Clegg MP, Leader of the Liberal Democrats - Pink News, 17 Feb 2010.
I was assuming that this historic statement by Nick Clegg, which you quote in your website, http://www.delga.org.uk/, would appear in the Liberal Democrat Manifesto 2010.
I was very surprised to find that it does not: http://network.libdems.org.uk/manifesto2010/libdem_manifesto_2010.pdf
Today, I searched for "lesbian", "gay" and "same-sex", and found nothing. The Manifesto's index contains only "homophobia" and "transgender" and refers the reader to pp. 35 and 73:
• Confront bullying, including homophobic bullying, and include bullying prevention in teacher training. (p. 35)
• Require better recording of hate crimes against disabled, homosexual and transgender people, which are frequently not centrally recorded. (p. 73)
That's it? The term "homosexual", not used by the lesbian and gay community, is used in a manifesto in 2010? The terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" do not appear? (There is a reference to "sexuality" (a non-legal term) at p. 30: "Most businesses do a great job of supporting their employees, but there is more to do to tackle discrimination on the grounds of gender, sexuality, age, race, religion or disability.")
I have just visited the Green Party's website for the first time. When I searched for "gay" in their Manifesto, I found a list of promised actions at p. 30: http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/resources/Manifesto_web_file.pdf. These include:
• Open up civil marriages and civil partnerships, without discrimination, to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
I have voted Liberal Democrat since 1992. But if Nick Clegg can only promise equal access to marriage for same-sex couples in "Pink News", and not in his party's Manifesto, then I am not voting for him and his party. I will vote for the Green Party for the first time.
Best wishes,
Rob
Prof. Robert Wintemute (Professor of Human Rights Law)
School of Law, King's College London, Strand
London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
In the Lib Dem's defence, they're a democratic party which won't put anything in their manifesto unless a motion has been passed at conference. I think Nick Clegg was speaking on his personal views and as no such motion has been voted on at conference, they haven't got it in their manifesto.
ReplyDeleteI hope they change this soon as the Lib Dem manifesto doesn't have much else to offer the LGBT community. The Green Party's manifesto has 14 VERY good offers to the LGBT community. The only one I take slight issue with is removing trans people from the mental health act, not because I believe it should be classified as a mental disorder, there is just no provision for trans people to still receive gender reassignment surgery alongside its removal.