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Tatchell to March with Sarah Brown in London’s Gay Pride

Promises to be on “best behaviour”
 

LONDON, July 2, 2009  –  Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell promised this morning to be on his best behaviour on Saturday at Pride London when he marches through the streets of central London with the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown.

“I won't embarrass her,” he told UK Gay News this morning.  “I will be on my best behaviour.

“But I do plan to remind Sarah that she and Gordon were able to get married, whereas gay couples cannot.  Her husband supports the ban on same-sex marriage.  He won't give lesbian and gay partners the same right to marry as he and Sarah have enjoyed.

“I hope Sarah will be persuaded that the time has come for marriage equality, and that she'll have a word in Gordon’s ear when she gets back to Downing Street after the parade.

As a Patron of Pride London, Mr. Tatchell said that he was  “delighted that the Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, will be marching with us on Saturday’s gay parade in London.  I look forward to marching with her. Sarah's participation is much appreciated.

He went on to say that civil partnerships were not equality.

“They are a form of sexual apartheid – gay couples cannot have a civil marriage and heterosexual couples cannot have a civil partnership.  It is wrong to have different laws for gays and straights. In a democracy, the law is supposed to apply equally to everyone.  This means equal marriage rights for all.

“In March this year, at a Downing Street reception for gay community leaders, from which I was excluded, Gordon Brown condemned the way Proposition 8 in California outlaws gay marriage.

“But isn’t this a tad hypocritical, given that his government also outlaws same-sex marriage?”

Gordon Brown Hypocritical on Gay Rights, Says Outrage(d) Gay Human Rights Leader.  Peter Tatchell this morning hit out at Gordon Brown, saying that the Prime Minister’s claims in a message of support to the gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender community ahead of Saturday’s Pride London were ‘hollow’.  (UK Gay News, June 30, 2009)

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