Gay rights in the UK are at a strange crossroads.
On the one hand, we seem to have ‘arrived’ at a point where LGBT
people enjoy legal equality with heterosexuals, at least that’s the
perception of a majority of the population, the LGBT community included.
This is untrue.
Civil Partnerships, although conferring the same rights as heterosexual marriage
are fundamentally inferior because they are separate from marriage. The separate
but equal defence has not been acceptable for the past 50 years.
Despite Scotland suffering a blood donor crisis, if you have ever had sex
with someone of the same sex, forget trying to give blood. This legally and
medically backed piece of discrimination rests on the stereotype of the entire
LGBT community being HIV+ and infecting the whole country with the ‘gay
disease’.
You would think that with a concerted campaign, this would be easy to overturn.
Not so.
The medical argument is unsound, as all donor blood is screened, and legally
it goes against the Human Rights Act.
But even gay student organisations, such as Dundee Universities’ LGBT
society are abandoning this fight ‘due to lack of interest’ and
in favour of more drinking.
The opposition doesn’t have a lack of interest.
Over a thousand Christian fundamentalists and their children demonstrated
at Parliament Square last year to protect their age old right to discriminate
on the grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services.
Tony Blair and the openly Opus Dei ex-Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly very
nearly split the cabinet by backing the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church,
the Muslim Council of Britain and the Chief Rabbi’s ‘Campaign
Against Gay Parents.’
Not to mention the First Minister of Scotland’s sugar daddy Brian Souter
and his multi-million pound bid to keep Thatcherite homophobia in schools.
As well as the First Minister of Northern Ireland’s half century of
railing against ‘the despicable sin of homosexuality.’
To say that LGBT equality isn’t an issue anymore is to be dangerously
mistaken, as the future is dangerously uncertain.
Before partial decriminalisation in 1967, and for most of the 40 years since
then, the closet and the underground, low-visibility nature of the gay community
has been its worst problem, allowing the Aids epidemic to reap devastation
with ease.
It is easy to see how neglected the younger generation of the LGBT community
has been by the older generation, and fair enough, seeing how much hassle
they still have to go through.
But it is this generation that is the most highly visible, coming out of
the closet younger and younger. This leads to a whole new set of difficulties.
Almost every single LGBT young person today has, at school, in the home or
on the street, been taunted, teased, called names, threatened with violence,
spat on, punched, beaten, victimised, sexually assaulted or exploited, thrown
out on the street, driven to self harm, contemplated or tried to commit suicide,
threatened with death or murdered.
Polls among young people say 85 per cent of LGBT suffer abuse, with near
95 per cent say they have witnessed it or know of it. The true number is
not less than 100 per cent, and that is the future of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
and Transgendered community; one which has grown up under a cloud of intimidation.
The only support from gay culture comes in a bottle or in a pill, and the
gay groups out there (LGBT Youth Scotland 0845 113 0005) can only offer support,
and don’t tackle homophobia head on.
It is fundamentally clear then, that everyone, be they Straight, Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered, who wants to make this country a place that
practices and preaches equality, that supports and cares for vulnerable young
people, attacks homophobia at its source and lets people live freely as themselves;
must unite and fight to make this happen.
No mainstream party fully and genuinely supports LGBT rights.
There is no high profile group, independent of government and media that
takes to the streets when a gay person is assaulted, an LGBT centre is torched,
or an Iranian lesbian is due to be deported to her death.
We must never forget than an attack on one is an attack on all. The Scottish
Socialist Youth is putting on a day of workshops and discussions on LGBT
issues, where we will more closely look at the problems, the priorities,
and what we can do about it.
Whatever your sexuality, join us then; join us on the streets, stand up and
shout out for the right to say what you think, do as you feel and love who
you love.
Don't sit back - fight back. Join the SSP today!
To keep up to date with our campaigns check
out the website of the Scottish Socialist Voice, the weekly paper of the
SSP.
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