Prime Minister Brown sends mixed messages on Pride

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has sent a message of support to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, ahead of this Saturday's annual Pride London parade on 4th July.

His wife Sarah will be at London Pride but the Prime Minister will not, neither will David Cameron.

Instead both party leaders are hosting their own events. David Cameron attended a private Pride party last night hosted by openly gay Conservative candidate Margot James.

Gordon Brown meanwhile will host a reception at Downing Street for LGBT rights campaigners and the pink press on the morning of Pride London.

However Peter Tatchell, arguably one of the most known and respected campaigners for human rights from within the LGBT community has not been invited.

'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.', he says.

Tatchell is angry with Gordon Brown and his government's progress on LGBT rights too:

'He claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination,' says Tatchell. '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. 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 is however unconcerned about personal plaudits:

'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,' said Mr Tatchell.

Peter Tatchells website:
http://www.petertatchell.net

The Prime Minister's full message to the LGBT community:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-12971.html

Sarah Brown to march at Pride London:
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-12991.html

Where's David Cameron?
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13021.html

David Miliband on Pride Global
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13007.html