William Craig and Peter Purton
The importance of the struggle for Lesbian and Gay liberation has not diminished since the election of the new government. Decisions of the European court are likely to put pressure on for at least limited law reform. However, both the weaknesses of what is proposed and the vagueness of the timetable lead to big problems about achieving legal equality within the lifetime of this parliament:
The proposal to reduce the age of consent for gay men from 18 to 16 as it is now has one big weakness; it is proposed as an amendment to the existing 1967 law which has major repressive elements to it.
The key phrase in the existing act is "Consenting adults in private", which therefore means that sex between men is only lawful within these constraints. Technically it is illegal for two men to have sex in a hotel room let alone any more ‘public’ place. This will remain in the new law, which means carte blanche for the police to pursue gay men for "cottaging" etc.
Prosecution for age-of-consent offences under the act will make anyone technically guilty of paedophilia, with all the repressive consequences that the government intends. A sexual act between a 16 and a 15 year old will probably result in imprisonment and the older person being placed upon the new "paedophile register" and potentially notified to vigilante groups? The legal position of gay sex as a "Tort" will apparently remain. So will older laws about Gross Indecency (the law used to prosecute Oscar Wilde). It should be noted that the Stonewall-backed European Court case has been dropped in the expectation that law reform is imminent.
There are no proposals to equalise the rights of lesbians and gay men to have/adopt/foster children, although there are signs that the new government may be a bit more pragmatic than the last on the ground.
There are no proposals around equalising partnership rights or non-discrimination legislation although the European Court decision on the Lisa Grant case is expected to be favourable. This would put the pressure on for changes to the law. Clear non-discrimination legislation with no loopholes should be introduced swiftly.
There are no proposals (and the government has explicitly rejected this) to remove discrimination in the armed forces. However, there is a European Court decision pending and the latest information is that this is likely to succeed. This could have the interesting effect of trapping the government between the rock of the Euro Court and the hard place of the military hierarchy over reform of MOD rules in this area. A favourable decision could result in massive compensation claims. This and the Lisa Grant case would also encourage the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation.
Arguing for this reform must be accompanied by debate the role of the armed forces in general. Socialists are always wary of arguing for any sort of reform within the armed forces. We are for their abolition as they are fundamentally part of the system of oppression of working people! Peter Tatchell has an interesting article about this in Labour Briefing (it is also on their web site at http://www.labournet.org/llb).
* There is no timetable either to introduce the age of consent reform, or to repeal Section 28. It has all be left either to a Private Member's Bill, or to an amendment to another bill. The government has made it clear in any case that only a free vote will be called. On Section 28, there is doubt whether the government in fact intends to repeal this at all.
Stonewall has been spearheading the law reform campaign, but this has been mostly done by behind-the-scenes lobbying. Weaknesses in the reform proposals have not been brought out.
The Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights has also been involved. LCLGR has been pushing hard on Section 28 and for maximum law reform in general. While it has also been lobbying, it has been raising law reform through open campaigning at Labour Party conference and through pushing its manifesto. Recently it has resolved the long debate over admission of bisexuals as members (they are encouraged to join!) and it should be able to concentrate further on its campaigning work.
Join LCLGR - they can be contacted at PO Box 306, London N5.