Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights THE DEFEAT of the crossparty amendment to equalise the gay male age of consent was a victory for Back to Basics and a setback for the lesbian and gay community.
Although the extreme right of the Tory Party, the Ulster Unionists and a tiny handful of unforgivable Labour MPs were opposed even to lowering the limit to 18, and have made much noise of their annoyance, the result is not a compromise but a defeat.
There is fury among lesbians and gay men, illustrated by the unprecedented attempt to storm parliament by thousands of outraged lesbian and gay rights demonstrators when the outcome was announced. They understood that you cannot 'compromise' on equality.
The votes of 39 Labour MPs brought about the defeat of '16'. Although 212 voted in favour, the whole of Stonewall's strategy must have been based on a naive estimation of total support from the PLP.
There is a severe anti-Labour backlash being orchestrated by both leftists and liberals in the community, which will benefit only the Liberal Democrats.
Key vote
Yet the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights knew well that winning the whole Parliamentary Labour Party to vote for the position of equality won at rive labour conferences since 1985 was not something which could be achieved in a couple of weeks of letter writing.
There were severe weaknesses in the campaign. Although the lobbying was organised with great professional expertise by the Stonewall Group, there was no attempt to mobilise the lesbian and gay community as a whole in public activity which could DA RENTSFO have brought massive pressure to bear on MPs as there was during the campaign against Section 28 five years ago.
There was no time to mobilise through the labour movement. The public activity which did take place were narrowly targeted at the gay male 'scene' in London. So lesbians, black people, and the whole wider movement which supports equality was left out of the picture, reduced to sending letters to MPs whose minds, in most cases, were already made up.
Anger
There will be anger in the labour movement over the result. This anger must be channelled positively. Socialists can get their organisations to discuss the issues of lesbian and The energy and enthusiasm of the Section 28 campaign is needed today gay equality, to invite speakers,