■ Brendan Barber:  “The ugly scar of homophobia continues to blight the lives of so many people in your community.”

LONDON, June 28, 2007  –  Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how far we’ve come in the past decade, Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress said today.

He was speaking on the opening day of the TUC’s annual LGBT conference at Congress House in London.

Several hundred gay and lesbian workers are attending the two-day conference to debate a series of key equality issues.  Among those speaking are Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, and the Labour MP for Wallasey, Angela Eagle.

Motions to be discussed by delegates include the portrayal of lesbian and gay people in the media, the monitoring of sexuality in the workplace and the potential conflict between religious belief and sexual orientation.

In his speech, Mr. Barber briefly looked back on the past decade.

“Ten years ago, the debate was about Section 28 – now we celebrate civil partnerships.” He said.  And ten years ago, discrimination against the gay community in the provision of goods and services was quite legal – now, at long last, it has been outlawed.

“As we celebrate that progress, we cannot afford to relax our guard.  This is not the time for us to take of eye of the ball.  Despite all the legal gains – despite our largely liberal, tolerant society – the ugly scar of homophobia continues to blight the lives of so many people in your community.

“The young student bullied at college, the lesbian taunted about her sexuality, the gay couple hounded from their home.

“However welcome they may be, changes on the statute book count for little unless they are matched by a corresponding change in attitudes.

“Think about our workplaces.  We know from our own research that four in ten LGBT workers have faced abuse at work because of their sexuality.

“And let’s not forget the challenges faced by LGBT people worldwide.  From the casual murder of gay men in Jamaica to state-sponsored persecution in Iran, from the alarming rise in homophobia in Russia to the death squads of Iraq, members of your community are under attack as never before.

“None of us can afford to turn a blind eye - an injury to one is an injury to all.  But where there is discrimination, unions will seek to remove it.  Where there is inequality, we will tackle it.  And where there is injustice, we will wage war on it,” he pledged.