So long as a prominent politician follows his or her party whip, does it really matter if they privately express an opinion contrary to the official line? In the case of Chris Grayling, Tory home affairs spokesman, who confessed that he thinks B&B owners should be able to discriminate against gay guests, then yes it does. Not only was Grayling – or “Gayling”, as a Sky News reporter inadvertently called him – advocating that business owners break anti-discriminatory laws, he demonstrated that what Tories will say and do to win an election has little bearing on what they believe to be right and wrong.
This is not surprising, given that 74 per cent of Tory MPs voted against Harriet Harman’s Equality Act, which made it illegal to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the provision of goods and services. In fact, just 2 per cent more Tories voted for this groundbreaking piece of legislation than voted to repeal the hated and totemic Section 28. Senior Tories from David Cameron to Teresa May, who once thought being photographed spinning around in a pair of kitten heels at a gay disco was enough to prove the Conservatives were no longer “the nasty party”, were quick to explain Grayling’s comments as the expression of a privately-held view.
Grayling himself insisted that it was all a question of allowing people to operate a business in their own home as they saw fit. This is sophistic bullshit. No one asked Susanne Wilkinson – the Berkshire B&B owner who turned away a gay couple – to go into the inhospitality industry. If she felt unqualified to operate her business within the law, she should have chosen a different profession.
Perhaps we should thank her for exposing the Tories for what they are in the nick of time. According to PinkNews.co.uk, which has been tracking gay and lesbian voters opinions in the run-up to the election, Grayling’s honest expression of how he felt has cost the Tories 5 per cent of gay votes. This is excellent news. But given that just 14 per cent of Conservatives voted for an equal age of consent and just 6 per cent voted to allow equal adoption rights, it is astonishing that they had 5 per cent of gay votes to lose in the first place. Talk about turkeys voting for Christmas. Gay people in Britain have benefited from 13 years of the most pro-gay administration the country has ever seen. This, somewhat surprisingly, is largely due to Tony Blair, who confessed that his “heart skipped for joy” when he watched the first civil partnerships being celebrated on television.
There is a feeling in the Tory Party that issues relating to sexuality are a private matter and so fall outside the remit of parliamentary politics. I agree that if a male Tory MP secretly wants to be whipped in his own home by a lady dressed as Ann Widdecombe, then that is – and should remain – a private matter. But the Tories should not conflate sexuality with sex, and Britain has changed beyond all recognition from the unfriendly place it was before Labour came to power – not just for those old enough to enter into the kind of relationship that Grayling and his colleagues find so reprehensible.
On arriving at an Oxfordshire school recently, “him indoors”, a peripatetic teacher, was surprised to see Sir Ian McKellen. The last time we bumped into him was under rather different circumstances.
The actor was visiting the school to give a talk on behalf of Stonewall, the gay rights organisation he helped establish to overturn Section 28. Invited by the headmaster, the theatrical knight spoke to the star-struck pupils about his life in the theatre, Lord of the Rings and homophobic bullying. His presence did not cause a mass coming out; a doff of his hat and a theatrical wave did not cause the boys to declare their undying love for their classmates. However, it did promote a wide-ranging discussion about discrimination. According to staff, it made more than one troubled teenager feel much better about himself and his future prospects. As a man who never really had to face “coming out” – I was never “in” – I can only imagine the immense relief this boy and thousands like him must feel to have his existence affirmed by no less a figure than Sir Ian McKellen. Under the Tories, such a visit would have been impossible.
There are many people (mostly on the right) who question whether you really can legislate against prejudice and they are probably right. But this Labour Government has shown that you can outlaw discrimination and so change the lives of millions for the better.
A day before the general election was called, Cameron spoke of ‘the great ignored” – specifically mentioning gays. Ignored? But I would rather be ignored by a Tory government than crapped on. Grayling speaks for the Tories on law and order. His remit includes homophobic crime. Meanwhile, Harman was in London’s Soho with Chris Bryant, launching what she called Labour’s gay manifesto. Bryant spoke of his dismay when he was turned away from a B&B with partner Jarred Cranney whom he recently married in the Palace of Westminster – a first.
It might just be the spring weather, but I suspect registrars may struggle to cope with the number of planned nuptials as the prospect of a Tory government looms and, with it, the recognition that hard-won rights can never be taken for granted.
