Openly Gay Stephen Fry and Other Entertainers Put Pressure on Cameron and the Tories
Call for Conservatives to distance themselves from homophobic Polish political group
LONDON, October 6, 2009 – Pressure on Conservative leader David Cameron over the Tory ‘alliance’ with the Polish Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the European Parliament continued today with the release of an ‘open letter’ signed by a number of entertainers, including Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart and Eddie Izzard.
They join a number of gay activists from the political arena, including Angela Mason OBE, Labour MEP and president of the European Parliament’s all-party ‘intergroup’ for gay and lesbian human rights Michael Cashman and four trades unions.
The letter (in full below) urges Mr. Cameron to get tough with the PiS – “urging them either to change their views or quit your new European group”.
Mr. Cameron and the Conservatives are praised for hosting a high profile LGBT event at their annual conference this week in Manchester – ‘Conference Pride’ is tonight at Spirit in Canal Street in the city’s ‘gay village’.
“But,” the letter continues, “if your Conservative Party really cares about equality then you must recognise the need not just to condemn the views of the Polish Law and Justice Party but to stop them from being spread in Manchester and throughout Europe.”
The letter comes a day after Peter Tatchell challenged Mr. Cameron to take action on a number of ‘gay equality’ issues, including a withdraw from the European Parliament alliance with the homophobic Polish Law and Justice Party, Dutch Christian Union and Latvian Fatherland and Freedom Party.
“Mr Cameron, we want to believe the Conservative Party has really changed – please help us by rescinding the invite to the Polish Law and Justice Party and urging them either to change their views or quit your new European group,” the letter implores.
FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER
Dear Mr Cameron,
As the Conservative Party gathers in Manchester, just a few weeks after thousands marched for Pride, we want to share our concern that the Conservative conference is lending legitimacy to a group of political parties in Eastern Europe whose views on gay rights are anything but progressive.
We know you say that the Conservative Party’s history of opposing gay rights and supporting Section 28 has been left behind. But if your Conservative Party really cares about equality then you must recognise the need not just to condemn the views of the Polish Law and Justice Party but to stop them from being spread in Manchester and throughout Europe.
It is not just that your new Polish allies oppose gay marriage and adoption but that their vile rhetoric – branding homosexuality as a ‘pathology’, gays as ‘perverts’, and describing ‘the affirmation of homosexuality’ as ‘the downfall of civilisation’ – was used to whip up hate during their election campaign. Your Party's decision to host an LGBT event at conference is a good step in the right direction. But it will seem empty - a two faced gesture - if in the same week you fawn over allies whose homophobia has no place in modern Manchester, in modern Britain, or in Europe.
Mr Cameron we want to believe the Conservative Party has really changed - please help us by rescinding the invite to the Polish Law and Justice Party and urging them either to change their views or quit your new European group.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Stewart
Stephen Fry
Jo Brand
Eddie
Izzard
Tony Robinson
Arabella Weir
Steve Cram
Roberta Taylor
Angela Mason, OBE
Michael Cashman (Labour MEP and President of the
European Parliament's Intergroup on LGBT Rights)
Arlene McCarthy (Labour
MEP – North West)
Glenis Willmott (EPLP Leader)
Allison Curbishley
Amy Lamé
Peter Guiness
Derek Simpson (Joint General Secretary UNITE)
Tony Woodley (Joint General Secretary UNITE)
Billy Hayes (General
Secretary CWU)
Wes Streeting (NUS President)
Dave Prentis (Gen Sec
UNISON)
SEE ALSO
Tatchell: What Gay Rights Policies Will a Tory Government Deliver?
Conservative Party leader David Cameron is all talk and no action on gay
rights, Peter Tatchell said this morning as the Tory party annual
conference got underway in Manchester. (UK
Gay News, October 5, 2009)
Polish PiS Party Will Not
Apologise to Gays for Its Homophobia.
The recent statement by William Hague, a former
leader of the British Conservatives, that his
party’s new political allies in the European
Parliament, the Polish
Law and Justice Party
(PiS) had moderated their views on gays and gay
rights has been dismissed in Poland. (UK Gay
News, July 7, 2009)
UK Tories Take the PiS in
New Euro Political Group of Anti-Gay, Racist
Parties.
Commentary. It is now official.
After a few years of rumours and a year
of speculation following David Cameron’s
announcement that he was pulling his MEPs out of
the centre-right EPP-ED group, the British
Conservatives have jumped into the European
Parliament “bed” with two other major Eastern
European right wing parties. And one of them is
the gay-hating Law and Justice (PiS) Party from
Poland headed by the country’s president Lech
Kaczyński, who when Mayor
of Warsaw banned gay prides in the capital, and
his equally homophobic twin brother
Jarosław,
a former Prime Minister.
Tories Must Make Clear if They Are Joining
Anti-Gay Parties in Europe – Lib Dems.
Liberal Democrats are pressing the Conservatives
to clarify if they are intending to form an
alliance with the anti-gay Polish Law and
Justice (PiS) party in the European Parliament.
(UK Gay News, March 17, 2009)
Poland Urged to Drop New Law Banning ‘Homosexual Propaganda’ in Schools.
Following a
debate on homophobia in Europe yesterday, the European Parliament
adopted a resolution today voicing concern at the recent announcement by
the anti-gay Polish Education Minister of a new draft law to outlaw
‘homosexual propaganda’ in schools. (UK Gay News, April 26, 2007)
The Two Who Stole Le Madame: Polish
Political Twins Target Gay Club Officially, Warsaw’s
famed Le Madame club – once a gay club, but more recently a
venue for everyone, “gay, straight, whatever” – should have closed at
the weekend. But some habitués have decided this is not to be and
are refusing to leave the haven of left-wing thought and expression in a
right-wing country.
(UK Gay News, March 28, 2006)