Here in the UK, we are in the run of to a general election to elect a new, or for that matter, an an old Prime Minister. A new political leader of the country! It's during this time that all the political party leaders go all out to trash to opposition, reach out and touch as many new and old supporters as they can. Also, hook in to those swing voters, those who have not yet made up their minds of which of the two evils is the lesser damaging!
Now, even though he's apparently ahead in the polls, the Conservative leader David Cameron isn't really doing much to help himself with the gay community. In fact it looks exactly like a game of one step forward and three steps back. Yes the rather charismatic tory toff apologised for his parties previous gay hating law, section 28 - so one step forward. Then there was that interview in the UK's top selling gay Lifestyle Mag Attitude, in which he came round to avoiding issues, wouldn't play ball with the photographer, showed his annoyance at being asked valid questions by. the excellent Johann Hari. Two steps back.
Then he didn't a little video of the national Gay Student Pride event in my home town of Brighton, so a step forward, now he's making a backwards move and has risked a loosing the gay vote in an interview with the UK's oldest information and lifestyle magazine 'Gay Times' in which he's completely flustered and all over the place with his answers on gay equality and about which way his own party members vote!
Such things would look bad enough in print in the magazine, but on screen, they would look even worse. Shame it was just an interview for a magazine then, you'd be thinking. But you're be wrong, for Gay Times was also filing it for use on their website. During the interview, he slipped up so much that it seems he's suggesting that MPs should be allowed to vote against laws which uphold homosexuality as a basic human right!
There are frequent hesitations and there is a point when he asked to end the interview. It's not the most poised and professional performance by a political leader, especially one wanting to win the electorates hearts and minds. Cameron and the Conservative party have picked up a lot of criticism for Conservative MEPs' failure to support a vote condemning a Lithuanian law which is without doubt pretty 'homophobic', plus there are concerns over how Cameron as sided with some, lets just say dubious European parties. More steps backwards!
Section 28, a law that the conservative part bought in when they were last in power, banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools and government funded places. It was an unjust and homophobic law that did a great deal of harm to a great many people. Cameron may well have apologized for the law, yet his own voting record on the issue tells a different story. During 2003, there was a vote in Parliament to repeal the law, guess which way Cameron voted at the time - yep he voted against repealing the law. If it was up to him, there would be no mention of homosexuality in schools, colleges, universities in fact anywhere that had all or some government funding.
See part of the interview here.
For the full details and the interview in full, see this months issue of Gay Times.
Jason's blog, The Seafront Diaries, defiantly not on the right wing and way more left of center, a political animal? No, more a fluffy squirrel, who knows where his nuts are!
© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw
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