Gordon Brown Hypocritical on Gay Rights, Says Outrage(d) Gay Human Rights Leader Peter Tatchell

LONDON, June 30, 2009 – Peter Tatchell this morning hit out at Gordon Brown, saying that the Prime Minister’s claims in a message of support to the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender community ahead of Saturday’s Pride London were ‘hollow’.

The message includes the claim that: “We [the Labour government] won’t ever give up on the fight for equality – we are marching with you every step of the way.”

But Mr. Tatchell disagreed. “He claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination.

“It supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not equality – they are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for gay and straight couples.

“Gay and bisexual men are prohibited from donating blood, even if they always practice safe sex and have tested HIV-negative,” Mr. Tatchell continued.

“Successive Labour Home Secretaries have given visas and work permits to reggae singers who incite the murder of gay people. Such incitement is a serious criminal offence.

“The government's current Equality Bill is supposed to ensure equal rights for everyone but it specifically denies lesbians and gays protection against harassment.

“Labour’s many commendable gay law reforms are no excuse for its stonewalling on the abolition of these remaining aspects of homophobic discrimination.”

Mr. Tatchell then questioned Gordon Brown’s decision not to take part in Saturday’s gay pride parade, citing ‘security considerations’ – his wife, Sarah will be on the march, Downiong Street announced yesterday.

“This is just an excuse,” Mr. Tatchell claimed. “He’s not marching because he knows he would be booed and jeered, like he was at the D-Day commemorations.

“Instead, the Prime Minister will host a reception at Downing Street for LGBT rights campaigners and the “pink press” on the morning of Pride London. Those invited are mostly – [but] not entirely – tame apologists for New Labour.

“Critics of the government’s record, like myself, are not invited.

“The same selective invitation criteria was applied when Gordon Brown hosted a Downing Street reception for LGBT campaigners in March. An insider tipped me off that my name had been removed from the invite list, at Gordon Brown's personal request,” Mr. Tatchell revealed.

“He was apparently still angry that I had heckled him over his government's erosion of civil liberties, when he opened the Taking Liberties exhibition at the British Library late last year.

“I have been campaigning for LGBT human rights for 40 years, since shortly after the 1969 Stonewall Riots. I was one of the group of people who helped organise Britain's first gay pride parade in 1972.

“I don't do my human rights work to win awards, honours or invites. It doesn’t matter to me that I haven't been invited.

“What angers me is the principle – the way the Prime Minister invites and fetes mostly tame pro-Labour loyalists in the LGBT community. It is a manipulative tactic by an insecure government that knows its record on LGBT human rights is not as glorious as it claims.

“Instead of remedying the remaining issues of homophobic discrimination, Gordon Brown seems more interested in isolating and excluding LGBT voices who continue to insist on full LGBT human rights,” concluded Mr Tatchell who, on his Twitter page, posted today: “Seems Gordon Brown is out to get me, too - must be doing something right!”.

■ Peter Tatchell, a patron of Pride London, was not invited to a launch reception hosted by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, last night. At the reception, the Mayor said that he was unable to take part in Saturday’s Pride London parade as the date clashed with his son’s birthday.

“Although I am a Patron of Pride London, Mayor Boris Johnson barred me from his Pride launch reception at City Hall last night. Why,” Mr. Tatchell asked?

“Pride London Chair Paul Birrell twice requested that I and others be sent invites. His requests were ignored.”