The UK's General election is only a matter of a day or so away, things are certainly heating up as all three parties rush to get as much support as possible, especially from the gay community.
Last week, Sarah Brown, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's wife made a visit to one of London's long running club nights, Duckie last weekend. Joining club host the lovely Amy Lame, Mrs Brown reminded the audience that it was the Labour government who equalised the age of consent for gays, ended section 28, implemented civil partnerships and the equality law. And in an rather during the nights raffle, a surprising coincidence raised a few smiles, Mrs Brown pulled out a winning pink ticket, the number of which was 10. Of course, the UK's Prime Minister's official residence is number 10 Downing Street.
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| Sarah Brown seen here with Michelle Obama |
Following previous bad publicity regarding homophobic remarks made by party members, the Conservatives again attempted to reach out and touch the GLBT community and catch up with Labour's lead in publishing an equality manifesto. In the document, they promises to consider the case for civil partnerships to be renamed as civil marriages. "Since the beginning of his leadership, David Cameron has made clear the Conservative Party’s commitment to sexual equality and gay rights – from his first conference speech, in which he proudly confirmed our support for civil partnerships, to his apology for our former stance on Section 28" Claims the front forward of the manifesto, going on "We have supported tackling homophobic bullying and measures to tackle incitement to gay hatred, and we have opened up Conservative candidate selection to people from all backgrounds"
However, just because it's written in black and white in a manifesto, doesn't mean it's true, David Cameron, the party leader seemingly contradict his own equalities manifesto. Cameron was asked on Sky News to clarify the situation - the question was posed "And just one final question, it’s been suggested that you would consider renaming or are going to rename civil partnerships as civil marriages for gay people, is that correct?"
David Cameron's reply was "I am not planning that" Going on to say. "I think civil partnerships are an excellent thing because they give gay people the opportunity to form a partnership and have some of the advantages of marriage, I think that is right and I’m very happy to look at how we can take policy forward and I think the debate in the House of Lords about allowing things to happen in churches and all that, that's a debate we should have but I think where we are at the moment I think has dealt with one of the great unfairness and so we should look to the future cautiously about whether we can build on that."
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| David Cameron |
Sadly, his views are not are not shared by the rest of his party, the vast majority of which voted against civil partnerships, against an equal age of consent, against the equality bills.
It's still surprisingly close as the election campaign hots up into it's final day and hours, most polls putting the Conservatives a few points clear of Labour and the Liberal Democrats. It's hard to make a prediction, it's really is that close, closer than ever before in living memory. However, due to that fact, it's looking more possible for the result to be a hung parliament, with no single party in overall control, which is not a prospect many are looking forward to. It would almost certainly spell disaster for many things, not least the fragile shoots of recovery from recession currently taking place.
Jason Shaw
This report first appeared on Gay Agenda.com where Jason is their United Kingdom Correspondent.
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© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw
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