OutRage! exposes Labour's 20 failings on queer human rights

LONDON, 3 July 2004 - "Labour should stop blocking gay rights and deliver its promise of equality", says queer activist group OutRage!

OutRage! is launching a new campaign coinciding with London's annual Pride march, today, 3 July 2004.

Marchers will be leafletted with flyers headed 'Gay Pride, Labour Shame', setting out "eight major failings of the Labour government on gay issues".

The 'Gay Pride, Labour Shame' leaflet urges lesbians and gays to protest to their MP and the Equalities Minister, Patricia Hewitt.

"Labour's failings include allowing charities to discriminate against gay people, upholding the ban on same-sex marriage, obstructing asylum claims by queers fleeing persecution, and exempting public bodies from a legal duty to challenge homophobia", said campaign coordinator Brett Lock of OutRage!

"These eight shortcomings are the latest in a total of 20 instances where the Labour government has vetoed or failed to act in support of the queer community", added Peter Tatchell, who compiled the OutRage! dossier.

"We are urging people to write to their MP and to the Equalities Minister, Patricia Hewitt.

"The government is letting us down. Although it has delivered on some queer issues, that is no excuse for its deliberate obstruction on others. Labour has a responsibility to respect and protect the totality of our human rights", said Mr Tatchell.

A full list of all 20 instances follow below.

Here are 8 examples of how Labour is currently sabotaging our community:

Labour says it is OK for charities to discriminate against LGBTs. It is refusing to amend the draft Charities Bill to make equal opportunities a condition of charitable status.

Labour is creating a new Commission for Equality & Human Rights. It will place a legal duty on public bodies to combat discrimination based on race, gender and disability - but not discrimination based on sexual orientation. As a result, local councils and other public bodies will remain free to do nothing about homophobic prejudice, harassment and violence.

Labour backs the ban on same-sex marriage. It supports a system of sexual apartheid, whereby gays are banned from marriage (homophobia) and straights are banned from civil partnerships (heterophobia). This two-tiered system of partnership law is not equality. It perpetuates and extends discrimination.

Labour claims violently homophobic countries like Jamaica and Zimbabwe are 'safe' countries and therefore asylum applications from them should be rejected. The Home Office often dismisses the asylum claims of LGBT people fleeing persecution, sending some back to risk violence and even death.

Labour has repeatedly refused to crackdown on homophobic hate crimes, including vetoing an amendment to the Crime & Disorder Bill 1998. It colluded with the Metropolitan Police to cover up the homophobic bullying of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor. Labour allows
homophobic reggae singers to openly advocate the murder of LGBTs, and it permits record stores and radio stations to promote CDs inciting homophobic violence.

Labour has exempted religious bodies from the new laws against homophobic discrimination in the workplace. This means religious-run institutions - such as schools, hospitals, care homes and hospices are free to discriminate against LGBT employees.

Labour claims to be cracking down on homophobic bullying in schools, but the vast majority of schools still have no specific anti-homophobia programme. While queer kids suffer, the government is letting schools get away with inaction.

Labour has failed to ensure that sex education and Aids advice lessons address the specific needs of young lesbians and gays. This failure is particularly serious when it comes to safer-sex information for teenagers in same-sex relationships. It is putting their welfare and lives at risk.

Here are 12 more examples of how Labour has sabotaged our community in the past.

Labour did not willingly legislate equality at 16. Initially, it did nothing about equalising the consent laws. Parity at 16 was forced on the government by a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights that declared the discriminatory age of consent unlawful. Moreover, Labour MPs were allowed a free vote. They were permitted to vote for or against equality - whichever took their fancy. But Labour never has a free vote on black and women's equality. Why the double-standards? And why did Labour include the 'abuse of trust' amendment in the age of consent Bill, thereby implicitly linking homosexuality with paedophilia?

Labour reneged on action against antigay violence. Prior to the last election, Home Secretary Jack Straw pledged swift action against homophobic hate crimes. In 1998, however, just months before the Soho bomb, he vetoed an amendment to the Crime & Disorder Bill that would have extended the tough new penalties for racist attacks to all hate crimes, including homophobic violence.

Labour said, in 1996, they would promptly repeal Section 28 when they came to power. But the government stalled for two years. It was only after the Scottish initiative to repeal Section 28 that Tony Blair was bounced into following suit. Even then, the repeal Bill was mischievously introduced by Labour in the Lords. This meant that the Lord’s vote against abolition could not be over-ruled by MPs – thereby scuppering repeal and forcing Labour to reintroduce the repeal legislation, which delayed scrapping of the Section for another two years. Even then Labour did nothing to inform and educate teachers that Section 28 did not apply to schools.

Labour promised to lift the ban on lesbians and gays in the military. Once elected, however, Labour ditched that pledge. It fought two cases – one in the European Court of Justice and the other in the European Court of Human Rights - to maintain homophobic discrimination in the armed forces. The ban was eventually lifted only because the European Court of Human Rights ruled it illegal.

Labour vetoed a 1998 amendment to the Human Rights Bill, which sought to explictly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Only one Labour MP – Jeremy Corbyn – defied the Labour whip to support this amendment. All the other left-wing and openly gay MPs either abstained or voted against protecting the queer community.

Labour three times blocked legislation to stop discrimination against queers in the workplace. It failed to support the Sexual Orientation Discrimination Bill in 1997, and in April and July 1999 it thwarted similar amendments to the Employment Relations Bill. In other words, Labour defended the right of employers to sack queer staff.

Labour opposed legal recognition for same-sex partners through it's entire first term, rejecting proposals to give gay couples next-of-kin, housing and inheritance rights. Justifying the government’s opposition, the Home Secretary Jack Straw said: "Marriage is about a union for the procreation of children, which by definition can only happen between a heterosexual couple. I see no circumstances in which we will bring forward proposals for so-called gay marriages".

Labour resisted moves to scrap the criminalisation of gay sex involving the presence of more than two people during the passage of the 1998 Crime & Disorder Bill. It also rejected measures to repeal the "gross indecency" law that was used to jail Oscar Wilde in 1895 (and which was used until 2003 to arrest hundreds of gay men).

Labour repeatedly declined to end the homophobic bias of the Sex Offenders Act, which resulted in men convicted of consenting gay relationships with 16 and 17 year olds being branded as child sex abusers. For two years after the equalisation of the consent law, the government blocked attempts to remove from the Sex Offenders Register men who were on it because of a gay age of consent offence with someone aged 16 or 17 (which was even at that stage no longer a crime). It was only after persistant and high-profile campaigning by OutRage!, supported by Stonewall, that the government finally caved in in 2004.

Labour stalled on ending the persecution of young gay men. After the House of Lords overturned the vote by MPs for an equal age of consent in July 1998, Home Secretary Jack Straw refused to use his discretionary powers to order a moratorium on the prosecution of 16 and 17 year old gay men and their partners. He insisted that prosecutions and jailings must continue because it is "the law of the land".

Labour rejected a proposal in October 1999 by Lady Turner of Camden to allow lesbians and gays to inherit pensions on the death of their partner. This left hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples at a major legal and financial disadvantage, compared to married heterosexuals.

These are 20 concrete, specific instances when Labour had an opportunity to overturn homophobia, but chose to maintain discrimination. Labour talks a lot about equality, but often fails to deliver. When it comes to the crunch, the government seems more interested in appeasing the homophobes of Middle England than in enacting rights for queers.

ENDS