Politics

Matthew Sephton, chair of LGBTory, was yesterday selected by the Conservatives to challenge Hazel Blears at the next General Election.  

At a meeting of Salford and Eccles Conservative Party members, Matthew was selected on the first ballot to be the Conservative candidate to run head to head with Blears for Parliament.  Blears was in the news recently over the expenses scandal and there are many Labour members who feel betrayed that she is being allowed to run again for their Party in this recently-redrawn Greater Manchester seat. Matthew, who lives in Manchester, commented, “Local residents in Salford have been badly let down and taken for granted by Labour and by Hazel Blears MP”. 

Blears resigned from the cabinet on 3 June 2009, the day before the 2009 European and local elections. On the day her resignation was announced, she wore a brooch bearing the message "rocking the boat" and she failed to praise for Gordon Brown's leadership.

Read more: Gay Tory to Challenge Hazel Blears Seat

On Human Rights Day 2009 (10 December), which the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recently declared would focus on non-discrimination, the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) will issue a series of specific appeals to nine governments and parliaments to act on discrimination. 

ERT is the only international human rights organisation focussed exclusively on the right to equality and regularly makes recommendations to governments on the need to repeal discriminatory laws and policies and improve protection against discrimination. ERT will use Human Rights Day to urge certain governments to adopt recommendations it has addressed to them over the course of 2009. The Trust will also write to the Presidents of Malaysia and the USA urging action to address the situation of stateless people in detention, in advance of the publication of new research.

ERT will be addressing specific appeals to 9 governments from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas:

Latvia – ERT will urge the Latvian government and lawmakers to uphold the equality of all persons under its jurisdiction in respect to their pension rights and not roll back current levels of social security, as recommended in ERT’s expert opinion earlier this year.

Malaysia – ERT will call on the government of Malaysia to ensure equal rights for stateless Rohingya migrants under its jurisdiction, following previous advocacy and ahead of the publication of its special report on the situation of Rohingya held in detention in that country.

UK – ERT will write to the leaders of the UK’s three major political parties urging them to ensure that adequate parliamentary time is made for the 2009 Equality Bill to be enacted before parliament rises.

Read more: Governments Urged to Act on Discrimination

Stonewall has released a plain English guide on how to challenge homophobic language in schools. The guide is aimed at secondary and primary school teachers and education and youth professionals in Britain.

This is the first in a series of education guides for teachers on different specific aspects of tackling homophobic bullying. Each Stonewall education guide will contain practical advice as well as information on policy, legislation and real case study examples of how schools are already combating the problem. The best practice examples come from members of Stonewall’s Education Champions Programme, which enables Local Authorities to work with Stonewall and each other to tackle homophobic bullying in their local schools.

Research conducted by YouGov for Stonewall this year has shown that homophobic language and bullying is commonplace in schools, but teachers are massively under-resourced to tackle the problem. 95 per cent of secondary school staff and three quarters of primary school staff reported hearing the phrases ‘you’re so gay’ or ‘that’s so gay’ in their schools. Eight in ten secondary school teachers and two in five primary school teachers reported hearing other insulting homophobic remarks such as ‘poof’, ‘dyke’ and ‘queer’.

Read more: How to deal with "That's So Gay!"

In advance of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting this weekend, the Equal Rights Trust (ERT) has called on the Heads of Government to condemn an Anti-Homosexuality Bill recently introduced in the Parliament of Uganda and to take urgent action to repeal existing homophobic laws across the Commonwealth.

Homosexual conduct is currently illegal in 43 of the 53 Commonwealth nations, despite the commitment in the 1971 Commonwealth Declaration of Principles to “foster human equality and dignity everywhere”.

In a letter to the Commonwealth General Secretary Kamalesh Sharma, ERT urges Heads of Government to:
  -  Establish a Ministerial Action Group to address the issue of laws criminalising homosexual conduct and advise member states of the Commonwealth on the legal implications of retaining such laws.
  -  Condemn the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which was tabled in the Parliament of Uganda in the strongest terms and consider sanctions which would follow from adoption of the Bill.
  -  Include a political commitment to tackling homophobic laws in the final communiqué of its meeting.

Read more: Call to Condemn Homophobic Laws

Prompted by appeals from the Sexual Minorities Uganda Group (SMUG), the UK gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust has written a letter of protest to Mrs Joan Rwabyomere, the Ugandan High Commissioner in the UK, concerning Uganda's Anti-Homosexual Bill 2009

George Broadhead commented, "In March this year, American Christians travelled to Uganda for a conference that pledged to "wipe out" homosexuality. Seven months later, a draconian bill has been introduced that pledges to make good on this threat.

He continued, "This witch-hunt has all the hallmarks of leading American Christian Evangelicals. The Family Life Network, one of America's most powerful Christian Evangelical organisation's, seems to have converted Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni to its anti-gay brand of Christianity, and this is the impetus behind the anti-gay crackdown."

Read more: Gay Humanists Protest Homophobia in Uganda