Page 18 - Fyne Times Spring 2014

Does equal marriage mean all is
well for LGBT equality?
Music is the History Month theme, so
let’s ask the band to play the wedding
march to celebrate the first ever same sex
marriages due next month. Let’s wish the
partners a long and happy union – although
remembering to caution them about where
to take their honeymoon abroad, given that
in nearly half of all countries being lesbian or
gay can attract a prison sentence.
There is much to celebrate. The leaders of
all the main political parties support lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender equality. It
wasn’t long ago that most Conservatives
were resisting the repeal of section 28.
The overwhelming majority of MPs voted
for equal marriage in 2013 (though more
Conservative backbenchers voted against
than for). The UKIP councillor who
believed that gay marriage caused the winter
floods has been rightly pilloried throughout
the media.
Hundreds of employers now compete to
get on the Stonewall workplace equality
index – let’s put to one side the high-scoring
college that kept a homophobic lecturer on
its books a year after he was reported to the
principal. In society more widely, there are
more LGB (and occasionally T) characters
in the mainstream media, and a small trickle
of sportspeople coming out, each inspired
by the last. British Social Attitudes surveys
show two thirds of people now think our
relationships are always or usually okay.
All this is an amazing change in just two
decades, and a tremendous achievement
by everyone in the LGBT community
(including many hundreds of trade unionists)
who has campaigned for recognition of
LGBT rights over a long period.
The extent of the transformation of LGBT
lives is reflected in the understandable
attitude of people growing up today;
that the struggle was something the
older generations did, it’s over now, let’s
move on, pursue a career without fear of
discrimination, go clubbing at the weekend,
get married, settle down...
Such an attitude is extremely dangerous.
The progress made in winning legal rights
in Europe and America has accelerated a
backlash elsewhere. In recent months, life
for LGBT people has got worse not better
in Russia, Nigeria, Uganda and in India,
representing between them some 40 per
cent of the world’s population. Challenging
this from the outside is portrayed
as colonial-era or decadent western
interference and can make the position
even worse. Only progressives within each
country can bring about change and LGBT
people in Britain have a moral duty to
contribute what we can.
It would also be foolish to see Europe as a
bastion of liberal attitudes. Vicious austerity
has generated popular support for far-right
and neo-fascist parties across the continent.
Some are already in national parliaments.
There is already a large bloc of racist
and homophobic MEPs in the European
Parliament, with the danger that they will
be joined by more following May’s Euro-
elections. Will reinforcements come from
Britain? LGBT voters have a duty to turn
out to vote and to help resist the progress of
far-right candidates.
In Britain itself, we have not yet won the
fight. Eighteen million people still believe
SPRING 2014
18