Spark In Darkness

The Tories, they still want my vote but are very bad at convincing me.

Cameron has recently had an interview about gay rights with the Gay Times. He didn’t do very well.

To be fair to him – it’s hard to see how any politician could do well in the circumstances. The Tory record on gay rights is appalling. As I’ve said before, repeatedly in fact. And it is necessary to hammer home that the Tories are still vehemently homophobic, not only their record, but their current votes and members. They are still fighting against our rights whenever they possibly can. The only thing they’ve ever done to try and change that is some nice words and empty gestures – nothing substantively pro-gay has ever come from the Tories. All we get is rhetoric and lies.

The interview made a vital point. “If you want us to vote for you, we expect you to vote for us.” And that isn’t happening. Not only isn’t it happening but it has NEVER happened with the Tories. Quite the opposite in fact.

Tory MEPs refused to condemn Lithuania’s law that is a direct clone of section 28 in the EU parliament shows just how much the Tory apology over section 28 (which, remember, Cameron himself was still supporting in 2003) is really worth. Tories are predominantly against religious civil partnerships and are very much in favour of religious exemptions to the hate crime laws and the anti-discrimination laws. Tories have viciously opposed gay rights on these issues and more – and Cameron has never felt the need to force the vote.

When our rights are on the line, the Tories vote against us. Cameron never applies to whip in our favour. Gay rights aren’t important to him, they don’t matter to him and anyone who thinks he and his party do is deluded themselves.

Some have pointed out that Labour allows a free vote of most gay issues as well. And some need to buy some context as well. You see, when Labour MPs have a free vote on gay rights issues they largely vote for gay rights. They’re not perfect by any means, they’ve made some mistakes and they’ve screwed things up and allowed more compromises with the homophobes than I am happy with. But their record on gay rights is generally a good one – and they allow free votes because they can trust their MPs not to be bigots.

The Tories allow free votes KNOWING their MPs are bigots. Knowing and not caring. By not using the whip on votes about gay rights, Cameron is showing that he doesn’t care about gay rights and isn’t interested in countering the homophobia in his party.

There is an election coming and I am deeply afraid of the Tories gaining power. Our rights are not stable enough, old enough or strong enough to survive them falling into the hands of these virulent homophobes.