Over the years I’ve written a lot about EQUALITY. Some critics might say too much. Well why wouldn’t I? Like every single person living in the UK I’ve a vested interest in how the government treats me, and how the law protects me. Actually I’ve not been a ‘single person’ for some time, and am extremely proud as a gay man that I can tell you that without fear of reprisals. Much of that is due to the extraordinary lengths this government has taken to enshrine LGBT equality laws.
Tony Blair claimed his heart actually ‘skipped for joy’ when he watched the first civil partnerships on television. I had the opportunity to ask him whether Gordon Brown felt the same way.
The former PM deadpanned; ‘I don’t think Gordon watches much telly’.
Either way both Vera Baird, who is charged with driving through parliament Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill, in the face of staunch Tory opposition, and Maria Eagle, who herself knows something of the issues involved, acknowledge there remains a lot of work to be done.
Speaking at the LGBT Labour fringe yesterday, Eagle (who gamely joined the panel after walking late into the meeting) recalled how prominent Tories ‘sniggered’ in Parliament at the very mention of ‘transgendered’ persons.
The Tories just DON’T get equality. They never have.
Maria vowed to push to make ‘incitement’ to homophobia a crime. Good luck to her. She better get her skates on, or make damn sure, as we all should, that the Tories don’t win in 2011.
ACE campaigner Ben Summerskill, of STONEWALL was left to rue the fact that there are not more openly gay members of parliament, and calculated that for proportionality there should be at least 20 ‘out and proud’ Lords in the upper house. Where are they? he asked.
‘I’m Free’ proclaimed the happily partnered Michael Cashman, MEP from the back, at which moment the equally fabulous Simon Fanshawe re-entered the room. Lord Fanshawe of Brighton, anyone? I just know Simon would look divine in Ermine.
