Tag Archives: homophobia

Opinion: Tackling homophobic bullying in schools

By Richard Giddings | Mon 4th February 2013 - 9:53 am

Liberal Democrat colleagues may remember that one of Liberal Youth’s big campaigns was to stop homophobic bullying.

As the former Liberal Youth Chair in Northamptonshire it was a campaign that is very close to my heart. Too many LGBT young people are subjected to terrible abuse and bullying – just because of who they are.

When I was elected to the County Council in 2009 I wanted to do

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bullying and featured | 6 Comments

Opinion: Why we need to tackle homophobic bullying now

By Sarah Rose | Mon 6th August 2012 - 10:23 am

In recent years, Liberal Democrats have been political frontrunners in identifying ways to tackle the insidious issue of homophobic bullying in our schools. In a 2010 interview with Attitude, Nick Clegg called for all schools – including faith schools – to implement anti-homophobia bullying policies and teach that homosexuality is “normal and harmless”. Our 2010 manifesto said that we would “confront bullying, including homophobic bullying, and include bullying prevention in teacher training”,

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bullying | 10 Comments

Opinion: Lynne is our Champion for equality and everyone should know it!

By Adrian Trett | Mon 12th March 2012 - 1:17 pm

Contrary to the pernicious article in the Guardian on Saturday, Lynne Featherstone MP, Minister for Equalities has worked her socks off to put equality and women’s rights at the top of the agenda for this Coalition Government.

And not only at the top of the agenda, but driving in every possible direction to ensure the rights of women (and also in particular the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people) are catapulted on to the front page of every tabloid and broadsheet paper and into the mainstream political debate and discussion.

So with all this extraordinary work, you would hope …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged campaign for body confidence, equal marriage, jane martinson and lynne featherstone | 4 Comments

Four Tory councillors in storm over homophobic nickname targeting Lib Dem leader

By Stephen Tall | Sun 12th February 2012 - 3:58 pm

Here’s a story that shows politics in both its best and worst lights — the facts, as far as I’ve gleaned them from the local paper, the Thame Gazette, are as follows…

Four Conservative councillors on Aylesbury Vale district council coined a nickname for the openly gay leader of the Lib Dem group, Stephen Lambert — they called him ‘Lily’ on at least four documented occasions, at the election count last May and at a number of group meetings. The homophobic slur came to light ‘when a member of the Conservative group approached with notes of the comments’.

Here’s what …

Posted in News | Also tagged aylesbury vale, john cartwright and steven lambert | 7 Comments

Lynne Featherstone launches Government campaign to tackle homophobia in sport

By Helen Duffett | Mon 14th March 2011 - 6:05 pm

Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities, has launched Charter for Action – a set of principles to help stamp out homophobia and transphobia in sport and make sport a welcoming environment for LGBT people.

The Pink Paper reports:

A groundbreaking gay sports charter which will invite national governing bodies of sports to commit to tackling homophobia was launched yesterday.

The announcement was made by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone as she attended the Sheffield Eagles rugby league game – a match against Widnes Vikings which saw players take a stand against homophobia by wearing specially made kits bearing the slogan ‘Homophobia: Tackle

…

Posted in News | Also tagged charter for action, equalities, lynne featherstone and sport | 1 Comment

Don Foster MP speaks out against homophobia in football

By Helen Duffett | Tue 12th October 2010 - 2:24 pm

Don Foster, Lib Dem MP for Bath, has given an exclusive interview to the Gay Football Supporters Network where he discusses homophobia in football and his own love of the sport.

From the Gay Football Supporters Network website:

Why do you think that we have made so much progress in football regarding racism (Kick It Out etc) and yet homophobia remains prevalent in the sport? Why do you think there are currently no openly gay professional players?

I think that groups such as yours have a vital role to play in challenging prejudices. We need to see individual fans,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged don foster and gay football supporters network | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: Wednesday 10 February

By Iain Roberts | Wed 10th February 2010 - 7:41 am

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the radio and TV this morning and there’s only one story filling up the front pages and the airwaves…

Posted in Daily View | Also tagged alex dingwall, barack obama, bertha joseph and helen duffett | 4 Comments

Muslims won’t play with the gays!

By Andrew Reeves | Sat 10th October 2009 - 8:50 am

We often see claims of racism and homophobia in sport today, more often than not though it is the fans who are accused of chants that are not as PC as they perhaps should be.

So when news of this story reached my in box from a few sources, I dug around and to be honest was appalled.

A Muslim amateur football team Creteil Bebel has pulled out of its planned game this weekend with Paris Foot Gay (PFG), saying it was against their religious beliefs to play against homosexuals.

In fact, Zahir Belgarbi, one of the team directors told Reuters: “As a Muslim, …

Posted in News | Also tagged creteil bebel and paris foot gay | 21 Comments

Ed Davey condems Tory alliance with “extreme right wingers and homophobes”

By Mark Pack | Fri 2nd October 2009 - 8:40 am

A follow-up to Wednesday’s post about the Conservative MEPs’ alliance with Valdemar Tomaševski, a homophobic Lithuanian MEP, with Ed Davey now commenting:

This is yet more evidence of the shameful way that Cameron has taken the Tories out of the centre-right mainstream of European politics, and allied them with a lunatic fringe of extreme right wingers and homophobes.

Cameron has been at pains to portray his party as one of modern, ‘liberal Conservatives’. It is hard to see where this fits in with an alliance with parties which support homophobic laws such as this.

Posted in News | Also tagged ed davey, lithuania and valdemar tomasevski | 5 Comments

Because homphobia is gay when it’s against Tories, too

By Stephen Tall | Thu 1st October 2009 - 9:00 pm

The Lib Dem blogosphere has a bit of a love-hate relationship with arch Tory blogger Iain Dale.

Some regard him as little more than a self-promoting tribal propagandist who plays a clever game of appearing impartial when it suits him. Others believe him to be a nice fella for a Tory, who spreads round a lot of blogging link-love, and maintains a prolific, usually entertaining blog, which through hard work and determination has brought him mainstream celebrity. My view? As a Lib Dem I think there’s a bit of truth in both verdicts (though, truthfully, I incline more towards the latter).

But …

Posted in News | Also tagged blogging, daily mail and iain dale | 26 Comments

David Cameron’s European ally supports “deeply homophobic legislation”

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th September 2009 - 10:59 pm

Liberal Conspiracy has the story:

Despite the persistent criticism that it has allied itself with extremists, David Cameron’s Conservative Party now sits in the European Parliament with the European Reformists and Conservatives group (ECR), led by Poland’s Michal Kaminski – a man allegedly with a racist and homophobic past.

But so far it has gone unreported that another ally of the Conservatives in Europe has a much more serious and recent record of homophobia.

Valdemar Tomaševski, MEP from Lithuania, and member of the Tories’ Euro coalition, is on record as having branded homosexuality a “perversion”.

Not only that, I can now reveal for the

…

Posted in News | Also tagged andrew reeves, conservative party, michal kaminski and valdemar tomasevski | 1 Comment

Opinion: Conservatives are complete hypocrites on LGBT issues as Section 28 raises its ugly head again

By Andrew Reeves | Sun 27th September 2009 - 7:45 pm

Do you remember Section 28, Clause 28 or even Section 2A? That awful piece of legislation introduced by the Conservatives back in 1988 prevented the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Thankfully it was repealed in Scotland on 21 June 2000 and then across the rest of the UK on 18 November 2003 – although living in Kent in 2004 was bad enough when the Conservative controlled County Council introduced their own mini-version of Section 28!

To be precise, the Act said; “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching …

Posted in News | Also tagged conservative party and lithuania | 16 Comments

Stephen Williams condemns Bristol Tories’ attack on anti-homophobia charity

By Stephen Tall | Fri 28th August 2009 - 2:30 pm

Pink News has the story:

A Liberal Democrat MP has accused both the Tories on Bristol council and one of the city’s newspapers of misrepresenting a National Lottery grant to a gay group. The Bristol Evening Post ran a story yesterday on Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH). The highly-respected group has been awarded £391,668 by the Big Lottery Fund for a project reaching out to LGBT young people.

EACH said on its website:

“Throughout the next five years this will be spent upon EACH’s ground-breaking project, REACH: supporting lesbian, gay or bisexual young people develop a sense of pride in their identity and help their peers and adults in young people’s settings challenge homophobic bullying.”

The leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, Councillor Richard Eddy, told the paper the grant was “mistaken and misguided” and “an outrageous waste of money.”

Posted in News | Also tagged bristol council, conservative party, richard eddy, roger helmer and stephen williams | 1 Comment

Lib Dems urge Tories not to join with homophobes

By The Voice | Wed 18th March 2009 - 9:39 am

Lib Dem equalities spokesperson Lynne Featherstone has written to the Tories shadow foreign affairs spokesman William Hague asking him to clarify if his party intends to join forces with a Polish party in the European parliament known for its homophobic remarks. Politics.co.uk reports:

The party in question is called the Polish Law and Justice party. The Tories are being pulled towards them after leaving their grouping in the European parliament – the centre-right European People’s party. It was the culmination of a promise David Cameron made while running to be party leader, but he must now form a grouping with at least six other parties to earn EU recognition and funding.

But Liberal Democrats and Labour warned the party could easily be thrown into the arms of non-mainstream parties, putting them on “the lunatic fringe” of European politics. Senior politicians from the Law and Justice party have made homophobic statements, as well as describing Barack Obama’s election in the US as marking “the end of white man’s civilisation”, the Liberal Democrats said.

The full text of Lynne’s letter to Mr Hague is below:

Posted in Europe / International and News | Also tagged conservative party, lynne featherstone and william hague | 3 Comments

Tory Councillor found guilty of gay slur

By The Voice | Tue 12th December 2006 - 4:35 pm

Cllr Peter Willows, a long-standing Conservative councillor in Brighton and Hove has today been found guilty of a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, which outlaws language causing alarm, distress or harassment.

He was alleged to have likened homosexuals to paedophiles, at a reception hosted by the mayor of Brighton and Hove.

Pink News had a reporter in the hearing and will doubtless have more soon.

Posted in News | Also tagged brighton and hove, peter willows and public order act | 8 Comments

Homophobia amongst North Norfolk’s Tories?

By Mark Pack | Sun 3rd December 2006 - 2:31 pm

It looks as if during the selection of the Conservative candidate for North Norfolk, one of their members got up and asked this question:

“Could we be assured that neither of the candidates is a homosexual?”

I have no idea which of the candidates this question was aimed at or whether it is true (and couldn’t care less – whether a candidate has matching socks probably tells you more about their suitability to be an MP that whether or not they are gay).

If it’s true (and the source for this is a series of comments on Iain Dale’s blog) it’s a disgraceful …

Posted in News | Also tagged iain dale and north norfolk | 13 Comments

Stephen Williams goes on YouTube

By Mark Pack | Mon 20th November 2006 - 6:50 pm

As part of the third annual Anti-Bullying Week, Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams has done a clip for YouTube about the problems of homophobic bullying:

Posted in Lib Dem TV and News | Also tagged stephen williams | Leave a comment

Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: homophobia

Opinion: Tackling homophobic bullying in schools

Opinion: Why we need to tackle homophobic bullying now

Opinion: Lynne is our Champion for equality and everyone should know it!

Four Tory councillors in storm over homophobic nickname targeting Lib Dem leader

Lynne Featherstone launches Government campaign to tackle homophobia in sport

Don Foster MP speaks out against homophobia in football

Daily View 2×2: Wednesday 10 February

Muslims won’t play with the gays!

Ed Davey condems Tory alliance with “extreme right wingers and homophobes”

Because homphobia is gay when it’s against Tories, too

David Cameron’s European ally supports “deeply homophobic legislation”

Opinion: Conservatives are complete hypocrites on LGBT issues as Section 28 raises its ugly head again

Stephen Williams condemns Bristol Tories’ attack on anti-homophobia charity

Lib Dems urge Tories not to join with homophobes

Tory Councillor found guilty of gay slur

Homophobia amongst North Norfolk’s Tories?

Stephen Williams goes on YouTube

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Social mobility: is the Coalition doing enough to encourage it?

Stephen Tall asks: "Did Nate Silver write in vain?"

Nick Clegg: "Of course the EU has to change"

"Mad, swivel-eyed loons": a top Tory on the Tories

Tag Archives: homophobia

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