Are Nu-Tory Homophobes Guiding Social Policy?

Some seem to think so, and they’ve organised a petition Requesting Theresa May’s Resignation from the Post of Equalities Minister

View this Petition’s Signature Map 29962 Signatures at time of posting.   Click here to  Sign Petition

Published by Lucy on May 13, 2010

Category: Politics

Region: United Kingdom
Target: David Cameron

Background (Preamble):

In the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat cabinet Theresa May has been appointed as Minister for Women and Equality.

Prior to this appointment her voting record on gay rights has included:

– Voting against further discussion on the repeal of section 28, preferring to let it stand;

– Voting against lowering the age of consent in homosexual relationships to 16;

– Voting against gay adoption rights; as well as numerous other votes that have offended both homosexual and heterosexual communities. For these reasons we do not feel she is appropriate for the post of Minister for Equality.

We would like to make it clear that this campaign is not politically motivated, and is in no way a campaign against any political party.

Furthermore it is campaigning only for Theresa May’s removal from this specific post, and not from any other position that she holds.

Petition:

We, the undersigned, call on Theresa May to resign, or be removed, from her post as Minister for Equality for the United Kingdom.

We believe that Theresa May should not occupy the post of Equality Minister when she has a voting record that attempted to deprive the homosexual community of their rights, and limit their rightful position as equals within our society.

We feel that, in light of this, she is not appropriate for the position as she has not been a positive force for the cause of equality in this country. Her appointment is symbolically counter-productive as it suggests that there is not a more appropriate person for the job who has been positively campaigning for gay rights.

We would also question her commitment to implementing effective change in this country considering her own views. Her appointment is therefore both intrinsically and instrumentally unacceptable.

Therefore, we ask for her immediate resignation from this post and for her replacement with a more suitable candidate.

And now my halfpennyworth….

I can’t say I’ve ever been particularly fond of the woman or that I would be particularly surprised to learn that she may, or indeed may not be, a homophobe because there are certainly plenty of ’em on the Government benches now.

One  story that gained very little media traction during the 2010 General election campaigning was that of Phillippa Stroud, the Tory candidate for Sutton and Cheam and head of the ‘Centre for Social Justice’,  (a Tory think-tank set up by former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith), who tries to drive ‘demons’ out of lesbians, gay men and transsexuals with prayer.

When the story of Stroud’s religious wackiness came to the attention of the public  Cameron was minded not to suspend her from the Tory party although he had previously suspended Philip Lardner, the Conservative candidate for North Ayrshire and Arra, “within minutes”,  for writing on his website that he thought homosexuality was “not normal”.

Although Stroud was not elected in Sutton and Cheam, she was  rewarded with a position as a Spad,  (special advisor), to her mate Iain Duncan Smith when he started work as Work and Pensions Secretary.

The New Statesman says of Stroud :

“As director of Duncan Smith’s hugely influential think-tank, the Centre for Social Justice, she has already played a substantial part in forming much of the Conservative’s social policy”

I can’t say I’m overly bothered about standing up for Friends of Dorothy because they’re usually quite good at doing it for themselves, but I do wonder how many Gay Tory party members are secretly, (and perhaps not so secretly), worried by traditional Tory intolerance being so openly and publicly tolerated, defended even, within the Parliamentary Tory party and by the Prime Minister himself.

If NuTory social policy really has been influenced by people who believe ‘gayness is a wrong which can be cured by prayer’, then there is already something very wrong at the heart of the NuTory party.

Hashtags:  #PhilippaStroud

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