National Officer Full legal equality for lesbians and gay men for the first time ever in Britain: this was the prospeat which determined the decisions of the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights(LCLGR) following its recent AGM.
From failing to make it onto the Conference agenda in 1984 to successful meetings with Shadow Cabinet ministers in 1990 marked the dramatic success of LCLGR in forcing the Labour Party to listen to demands for the ending of the legal oppression of the lesbian and gay communities, and the outlawing of everyday discrimination.
The Labour Party National Executive's document Opportunity Britain', which would have been the basis of a June election manifesto, contained a substantial paragraph June 8, 1991 No. 3 promising such reforms, along with a commitment to repeal recent Tory attacks - such as Section 28 and Clause 25 of the Criminal Justice Bill.
But - as out-gay MP Chris Smith wared the meeting - there is absolutely no room for complacency. Many of the Labour leaders have finally accepted their conference policy for no other reason than that they were forced to.
The inevitable Tory attack, guaranteed to be outdone in sordid bigotry by the press, cannot be defeated by the defensiveness or silence which has marked previous Labour responses, from the Bermondsey by-election onwards. The perceived electoral unpopularity of the issue will be a massive pressure on those who do not understand that. prejudice cannot be fought by retreating before it.
Those MPs who see lesbian and gay equality - like abortion rights -as a matter for their private consciences have already secured a victory in Roy Hattersley's refusal to allow more than a free vote on the equalisation of the age of consent.
LCLGR therefore plans to build an even stronger campaign of pressure through the labour movement in the run-up to the election. Meetings are to be held with the Tribune and Campaign groups of MPs, with important shadow ministers like Robin Cook and Jo Richardson, and with groups such as Labour Party Socialists and the Labour Coordinating Committee.
This is most definitely not a question of waiting for Labour to win an election. On the contrary, it is a continuing fight to defend the lesbian and gay communities against attacks and to carry the issue throughout the labour movement.
* To obtain a speaker from LCLGR on its campaign for equal rights, orto affiliate, write to: PO Box 306, London N5.
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