Cringing at the bigots

Teresa May is perhaps the most glaringly horrendous cabinet choice of the new government since she’s supposed to be the protector of the marginalised from prejudice, but glancing over the other Tories who now lead the nation, she is hardly the only homophobe in power.

Far from it. I only glanced over the new cabinet and I cringed. None of  these Tories have a decent voting record on GBLT rights. Of course, if we were looking at Tories with a decent GBLT record that would have been quite a challenge. But, with May as equalities minister it seems one of the things the Lib Dems were oh-so-quick to compromise on (along with most of their social agenda) our rights were quickly thrown out the window.

Ian Duncan Smith is the new Secretary for Work and Pensions. Of course, IDS was the Chair of the Centre for Social Justice that fought viciously against Lesbians being able to both be recorded as parents after IVF treatment and still fight the CURRENT PENDING LAW that would acknowledge 2 gay men as parents of a child conceived through surrogacy. He also supported denying Lesbians IVF treatment in the first place, equating Lesbian relationships with “broken homes.” Public whip puts him STRONGLY against equal rights for gays voting against, well, everything. Oh he was absent for the civil partner’s bill. Stonewall gave him a 14% voting record.

Baroness Sayeeda Warsi is the new Tory party chairman. Her presence in the cabinet does relieve the overwhelming white-maleness of it all, but her homophobia is true to form. When she stood for the Tory seat in Dewsbury in 2005 she fought by spreading homophopbic leaflets. You see, scrapping section 28 meant us gays would be ‘propositioning’ school children and that we were peddling homophobia to 7 year olds. Yes, a paedophilia accusation

We have William Hague as the new Foreign Secretary who was a defender of Phillipa Stroud. When he was Tory leader not only did he push to preserve Section 28 but he sacked MP Shaun Woodward who refused to support such homophobia Stonewall gave him 29%voting record. He was absent for the equalising age of consent, Equality Act and civil partnership bills, voted against gay adoption AND voted against the repeal of Section 28

I am actually afraid to start digging, such a collection of people who have voted against every right we have ever fought for. I think it’s going to be damned depressing to examine this cabinet

Call for action – Kiana Firouz

I’ve said before that asylum is very much an LGBT issue. The case of  Kiana Firouz makes this very sadly clear

Kiana Firouz is an Iranian lesbian. She is also an incredibly courageous woman and GBLT activist.

She has acted in a video documentary that highlighted the persecution of GBLTs in Iran. She also has a starring role in the film Cul de Sac produced in the UK that portrays the persecutions lesbians face in Iran.

In Iran lesbians can facer a sentence of 100 lashes. Repeated “offenders” face the death penalty. The Iranian government is aware of her work, she has been harassed in Iran and has fled to Britain for safety

She has been refused refugee status.

It is a travesty that such a clear case be denied – and truly evil to deny the persecution she would face in Iran if she was denied this protection.

Because of politics been the way they are at the moment, it can be hard to call for action to stop this – but we have to try, for Kiana Firouz and for her work and her fellows.

The emaill address of the Home Office is:
(public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk)

Home Office
Direct Communications Unit
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

There is a petition for her here

There are easy ways to contact your MP here as well as their contact details here

Other useful modes of contact are:

Minister of State (Borders and Immigration) -
Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Fax: +44 870 336 9034

Secretary of State for the Home Department -
Home Office, 2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Fax: +44 20 7035 0900

Our new Home Secretary, Theresa May, can be contacted on her website And below:

Rt Hon Theresa May MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
Tel: 020 7219 5206
Fax: 020 7219 1145

mayt@parliament.uk

I have a lot of contact information here because, while the government is changing, I am not sure what is still working or being followed. The more, the better