Page 14 - Spring 2015

Ten years of LGBT
History Month
It has been a whole decade since the first ever LGBT History
Month, in February 2005. Progress was the banner under which
the initiative was created, and in the last ten years, the world as
a whole has changed dramatically for LGBTs, mostly positively.
From marriage to the age of consent, there have been many
leaps forward in the last ten years, as well as a few odd steps
backwards.
2005
In Spain, the Government took the largely
unexpected move of becoming one of the first
European countries to offer legal unions between
same-sex couples. The first partnerships took place on
3rd July. The move made Spain only the third country
in the world to grant legal rights to same-sex couples.
But it wasn’t all good news in 2005. In October,
Londoner Jody Dobrowski was beaten to death
at around midnight on Clapham Common. His
death was instantly suspected to be motivated by
homophobia. Two men were arrested and eventually
convicted of his murder.
The year ended with the first ever Civil Partnerships
taking place in the UK. Technically, the first ever
partnership took place between Christopher Cramp
and Matthew Roche, who were allowed to forego the
usual 15-day waiting period as Roche was terminally
ill. In a sad twist of fate, Roche died the very next
day. Those not granted special dispensation had their
ceremonies on or after 19th December.
2006
The first ever attempt at a Pride event took place
in Moscow after the city’s head of security Nikolay
Kulikov said that the event would be banned. The
parade went ahead as planned and the small number
of LGBTs and supporters were attacked by counter
protests. Peter Tatchell was at the event and was
himself subject to violence from protesters.
The Equality Act was passed in 2006, which gave
LGB’s the right to not face discrimination in relation
to the provision of goods and services. There was
great opposition to the Act in Northern Ireland
and so the Government pushed through separate
legislation covering the country while its parliament
was suspended. This ‘negative act’ meant that rather
than the Northern Ireland Assembly passing the Bill
into law, the measures required that instead, the act
could be annulled by a resolution of either house of
parliament.
Over in the Isle of Man, LGBT rights had never been
high up on the agenda. However in 2006, the first
massive step for gay rights was taken when law-makers
voted to equal the age of consent for male same-sex.
spring 2015
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