Why should gay people vote conservative?

Well this is the big question for a lot of us.

Especially after the celebrations at Conference Pride for the Conservatives on Tuesday night and also Tory Shame at Poptastic with protestors objecting to the Conservatives record on LGB and T rights.

There was a large turnout for this Conservative Fringe event at Manchester’s Midland Hotel and everyone was waiting to hear from not only Conservative MP’s but also Ben Summerskill of Stonewall.

Speakers:
Ben Summerskill - Chief Executive, Stonewall.
Nick Herbert  - MP, Shadow Secretary of State for The Environment.
Jean Eaglesham - Chief Political Correspondent –Financial Times.
Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Candidate for Pudsey.
Ruth Davidson - Parliamentary Candidate for Glasgow North East.

Ruth Davison opened the proceedings by asking three questions:
 - What has stopped gay people voting Conservative in the past?
 - What changes need to made within the party to address this
 - Why is The Conservative party a better option at the next election?

Ruth acknowledged that the perception many people have of the Tories is historically one of an anti-gay culture. She also acknowledged that Section 28 was wrong and that the Conservative benches needed to better represent the LGB community.

"This is more than just a 'hug-a-homo'- moment" she joked, "There is a real willingness to change the party from the inside."

Moving on to why gay people should vote Conservative was the message that gay people are not single issue voters and just as likely to vote on all the other major political issues.

While no one in the conference room would deny the Conservatives lousy record on gay rights over the years, attention was drawn to the fact that the first ever national debate to pitch for British gay votes among gay professionals found that over 38% would vote for the Conservatives at the next election:
http://www.jaketm.com/debate.aspx

Ms Davison did pay credit to the Labour government for the amount of legislation they have brought in over the last decade but added this has been an important part of the journey but there is still more to do and there are many more debates to have on issues such as gay men being blood donors, gay marriage and continuing debates on issues such as gay adoption. She also reassured the audience that there would be an ‘honest dialogue’ with David Cameron and that gay voters had nothing to fear from him.

Stuart Andrew admitted that he had issues with the party in the past.
" I came out twice.” He said. “First as a Conservative on a council estate in Wales in the 1980's where I thought I could affect change in my local neighbourhood, then as a gay man after the 1997 general election when I was met with hostility. I did feel that this issue was a stumbling block for me so I joined the Labour Party. I had changed sides because of one issue and it felt like a mistake. Since 2000 I have done my bit to help try and modernise the Conservative party. It is not an issue for me and my partner but I know that people will vote on a whole host of equality issues but what I can safely say is that the party really has changed and that we are there for everyone."

Ben Summerskill, head of the LGB equality group Stonewall, pulled out of the Conference’s LGBT Pride event the previous night over the Tories' controversial new allies, including Michael Kaminski chair of the Conservatives new European Conservatives and Reformists grouping in the European Parliament.
This did not go down well with the audience but it was clear that all assembled had an enormous amount of gratitude for the work of Stonewall in lobbying for gay rights over the last 20 years and listened to him speak respectfully.

He acknowledged that this was his 48th party conference (if you take into account Labour and Lib Dems too) and he was ‘delighted to see such a vibrant turn out in Manchester’.

"I'm often asked if the Tory party has changed", he began. "This of course is a critical question for gay voters. We would be daft if we did not acknowledge that the party has seen a transformation in recent years. It would have been unthinkable a few years ago to imagine that a Conservative leader would apologise for Section 28 or that an out lesbian candidate like Margot James would be such a high profile member of the party. After the next general election we are probably going to have more out lesbian and gay MP's from the Conservatives than any other party."

"However there is still much more work to do. The Equality Bill is one of the last big pieces of legislation to pass and I hope that everyone I have spoken to will keep their promises and help to make it a reality. It is clear to us that if public services learn to treat every user differently they will be able to deliver public services more effectively and much cheaper. This is critical in a time of economic recession it is not a luxury."

Mr Summerskill went on to say, “While all parties have achieved so much there must be no turning the clock back. If any future government thinks it is permissible to turn away people who are funding these very services this is just as offensive as Section 28."

"We have influence; we must not turn the clock back either in Britain or throughout the world. Britain has changed.  There are now 500 organisations who are signed up to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme promoting good practice and delivering world class services in the public and private sectors .If this current trend continues there will be more people who go to work for a company or organisation that is part of the Diversity Champions programme than those who belong to a trade union.

We cannot be complacent, we must be vigilant. If ever any of us need any reminder of the importance of this then we have to look no further than the murder of Michael Causer in Liverpool where the men who did these attacks have been educated in this country in the last five years.

The Equality Bill –Creating a Fairer Society:
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx

Nick Herbert became the first out gay Conservative MP at the time he was initially elected, although other MPs have come out while in office. He has also recently became civilly partnered to his long-term partner. "The fact that so many openly gay candidates are here is self evident" he said. For me one of the most significant moments in that the Conservative party has changed was in 2006 when David Cameron said that there was something special about marriage and mentioned Civil Partnerships saying that it was special if the union was a man and a woman, a man and a man or a woman and a woman. The whole conference applauded at this and I knew at that moment that the party had changed."

"What the Labour government did is commendable but gay people are not the property of any one political party. I do think that at the moment Labour want the gay public to think that there is clear pink water between us and them. They want the public to think that the Tories haven't changed but we should reject these dividing lines and intolerance.

"Now we have 3 openly gay MP's as Shadow Ministers and out candidates in winnable seats across the whole country.We accept that there is more work to do in areas such as homophobic bullying in schools and homophobia in sport along with brutal oppression across the world for lesbian and gay people."

"The equalities agenda is mainstream now and I would like to commend Stonewall on their campaign 'Some people are gay, get over it.'
What I would say is 'The Tories have changed. We are gay friendly, get over it. This debate has moved on.’
I want to live in a society where being gay is no problem in your life or career;
I want to live in a society where someone can represent their community who do not mind about their sexuality.
This happened to me and it is happening across the country.
We must reassure people that it is OK to be gay and do the job they want to do and know that the party that they want to support will support them.
We want to be tolerant and inclusive as a party and as a country.
Let us move forward and take the majority with us."

At this point Jean Eaglesham who had been chairing the discussion asked Nick Herbert about his views on the controversial European allies of the party.
He replied that “…someone from Poland could indeed look at the history of the UK Conservatives and not be convinced that we are gay friendly but we have his assurance that both Mr Kaminski and the Polish Law & Justice party are fully committed and object to all forms of discrimination including that of sexual orientation. Poland is more socially conservative than the UK but we have an opportunity now to show a progressive influence on our allies"

On the subject of the Polish objection to gay marriage, Mr Herbert said that there were people in the UK that objected to this and we must have a serious debate on where we stand at the moment not on where we stood a few years ago.

The Chair then pressed Ben Summerskill on the reasons why he pulled out of the previous nights LGBTory Pride event. "I never imagined that there would be so much interest in these events." He said " I think the important line that Nick has drawn is that we must take people on what they are doing now, not what they did 5, 10 or 15 years ago."

Therefore I think it is important that all politicians across the European Union do something now in light of what has happened in Lithuania where a form of the Section 28 law has just been introduced."

Asked again if he had concerns over the Conservative parties European allies, Mr. Summerskill said that he was pleased to have the reassurance from Mr Herbert on the views of the Polish Law & Justice party. "As Nick has indicated if people were currently engaged in offensive activities than the Conservative party should take action."

QUESTION TIME

Among the questions asked after the discussion were Andy Clark from Christian Watch who raised concerns about gay rights infringing on peoples religious beliefs over recent cases of straight owners of guest houses turning away gay couples and registrars refusing to marry gay couples because of their religious beliefs and being subject to criminal prosecutions under The Goods & Services Act.

Ben Summerskill quickly replied:
"I have never wanted to have a gay right. All I have ever wanted was the right that most people take for granted, to be treated the same as everyone else".

Quoting Earl Ferrers, the Conservative politician who is one of the remaining hereditary peers. Summerskill shared the story of The Earl publicly saying that a hospital should be allowed to turn people away if they were gay.

"In the last five years I have had fights with the government over pensions, goods and services and incitement to hatred laws." he added.

Asked by Mr Clark to clarify the number of lesbian and gay people in the UK as he said had been given misleading numbers Summerskill replied. "It really doesn't matter does it, it's about being treated with respect."

Another question from the floor came concerning matters of faith. "We've been hearing about gay rights", said the representative form Hornsey and Woodgreen Conservative Association "But what about Christians, will they have any rights?"

"What rights do you want that you don't already have?", replied Jean Eaglesham.

The questioner then went on to talk about recent cases of straight owners of guest houses turning away gay couples and registrars refusing to marry gay couples because of their religious beliefs and being subject to criminal prosecutions under The Goods & Services Act.

"So you want the right to discriminate?", she answered.

A member of the audience from Amnesty International then added that they do look at both gay rights and the freedom to express religious views asking the panel what would the Conservatives do to actually support gay rights in Europe?

"Internationally we should do more" “acknowledged Nick Herbert. I try to team up with colleagues to table early day motions to influence other countries and I am always open to new ideas “he said.

Stuart Andrew added now that the party had set up an LGBTory Group, perhaps it was time to set up a European version to help form new opinions across the EU.

Finally there were questions about the Save the pub campaign and how could that be used to support ailing gay venues and also an amusing take on the incitement to hatred laws using Grahame Norton's recent remarks about lesbian haircuts and the event which was for many people a very informative and lively debate came to a close.

The one question I have though at the end of all this is will David Cameron acknowledge the LGB & T community in his closing speech as apart from obviously targeted discussions like this one,  issues relating to gay men, lesbians and transsexuals have not appeared across the broader equality discussions at this conference.

We shall see...

Andrew and Joanne have attended this year's conference in an attempt to try and understand how much the Conservative Party have changed - but have they done enough? To see videos and images from the Tory gay fringe event, and read an hoenst and well-written view on the subject, see this article on the subject at g7uk.com as it echoes what I'm sure is on the minds of LGB and T voters, as it is on mine.

Keep reading the website because, as the conference season draws to a close, we'll be pulling together the opinions gathered from the Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative conferences and having a good go at trying to make sense of it all. I for one can't wait. - Marc, Online Editor

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