Page 16-17 - FYNE SUMMER 2013-WEB
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SUMMER 2013
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Peter Purton, TUC LGBT and Disability
Officer, give us his thoughts on Equal Marriage.
The government hopes to have enacted the
bill to legalise same sex marriage by the end
of the year. This is a good thing for LGBT
communities. But the debate has drawn out
the enemies of equality – and it has also led
to LGBT communities being diverted from
other pressing issues.
If you believed certain newspapers, the
whole country is up in arms to defend
“traditional marriage” and the world will end
when men and women can marry someone
of the same gender. We know that actually
most people don’t give a damn, a majority
is in favour of same sex marriage, and this
includes a majority of people belonging to
faith groups (maybe someone should tell
their bishops). We also know that the take-
up of heterosexual marriage is at an all-time
low: maybe they should turn their efforts
to persuading straight people back into the
registry office?
The sheer viciousness of the opposition
should remind us that we don’t yet live in
a country where lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people are accepted as equal
citizens. Indeed, the British Social Attitudes
Survey confirms that more than a third of
the population reject the idea. That’s an
awful lot of people and it explains why
there is still an appalling level of hate
crime – especially against trans people
– and why we still don’t have any “out”
professional footballers. And in case anyone
was pondering whether to announce a
change of gender, the diabolical hounding
by sections of the press that led to the
death of transgender primary school teacher
Lucy Meadows is a powerful warning of the
possible dangers of coming out, even in
Britain in 2013.
The reason that the creation of same sex
marriage is important is that it will, over
time, help challenge these prejudiced
attitudes. Some people will never accept
us – the people who have rehearsed the
same prophecies of doom with every single
legal reform over the last twenty years.
But for other people, this reform will help
gain recognition for LGBT people. The
consequence of genuine equality is greater
acceptance.
Meanwhile, as the government polishes
its equality credentials by promoting equal
marriage, its attacks on ordinary people
including all the equality groups grind
relentlessly on. If you are a disabled
LGB or T person declared fit for
work by ATOS despite having severe
impairments, having the right to get
married won’t help you live on £70 a
week. If you are aged 18-24 and are
one of the one quarter of that age group
unable to get work, or if you are working
for the national minimum wage on a zero-
hours contract, you won’t be able to afford a
wedding, and even if you can, you won’t be
able to afford to move out of a parental home.
If you are one of the many young LGBT
people forced out of hostile family homes,
you won’t be able to afford to rent a room in
the city because of the cap on housing benefit
(and because even if you have a job, many
don’t pay enough to afford the rent).
There used to be LGBT community and
voluntary sector organisations offering
advice and help to members of the LGBT
communities, but every week brings news of
the closure of another such source of support.
The TUC will be producing a report later
this year showing the impact of these cuts
in government or local authority support for
the LGBT voluntary sector, but we already
know how hard our voluntary organisations
– amounting in financial terms to less than 1
per cent of the total spend in this sector – has
been hit.
For a number of years now, many people
have accepted the government’s argument
that there is no alternative to their tough
approach to get down the deficit and to
restore the health of the British economy.
But more and more are now seeing that far
from solving the problem, George Osborne’s
austerity policy has actually made it worse. It
isn’t rocket science to understand you can’t
run a national economy like a corner shop.
If people are out of work or earning too little
to live on, they are not going to pay taxes
or spend money. As a result, government
borrowing has actually gone up! Meanwhile,
the people who caused the 2008 financial
crash that caused the economic crisis are,
literally, laughing all the way to the bank (the
place where many of them still work). Our
public sector is being privatised at a speed
that even the late Mrs Thatcher would not
have dared, based on the false notion that
private services run for profit are somehow
both cheaper and better services. The Health
Service is being placed under enormous stress
as the headlines tell us every day and again
the government’s only answer seems to be: let
the private sector have a go.
The trade union movement has been arguing
from the start for an alternative approach to
the crisis, an approach based on:
• Jobs, growth and a new economy
• Fair pay and a living wage
• Good services and decent welfare
• Respect and a voice at work.
Central to achieving these aims is our fifth
campaign goal, strong unions, and the need
for people to join and participate in the
collective voice that unions give to working
people.
As LGBT people, we welcome equal marriage.
But we also want proper jobs in a strong
economy, decent public services including
welfare when we need it, and respect for our
rights, as workers and as lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender citizens. Trade unionists will
be promoting these messages at Pride events
over the summer.
To support the TUC campaign, visit
Challenging
prejudiced
attitudes with
marriage
