Peter Purton, long time activist in the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights (LCLGR), gave a presentation at a workshop of lesbian and gay rights at the European Counter Summit in Amsterdam on June 15 1997. Here we print a shortened version of his IN BRITAIN today, there is a sense of a new age, a new range of opportunities, a new world. The lesbian and gay communities in their great majority voted for Tony Blair's "New" Labour Party. They have great expectations.
But what exactly did they vote for? They voted to get rid of a Conservative government so hostile to the idea of lesbian and gay equality that it introduced laws which made our position worse - such as Section 28 which outlawed the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.
They also voted Labour because they wanted to stop being outcasts and become part of the New Britain which Labour promised to create.
Radicalism ditched Labour Britain will have similar economic policies to those of the Conservatives. All the radical or socialist policies have been abandoned. But Blair did promise "fairness". Not very concrete, but it seems it was enough.
Among the policies it held onto were those LCLGR had won during a long campaign in the 1980s and 90s. When we first started, Labour had nothing to say about us apart from a short sub-committee document which was gathering dust.
We argued and struggled to be taken seriously and eventually won a comprehensive Labour conference policy. In 1994, 80 per cent of Labour MPS voted for an equal age of consent. Ten years before such support would have been beyond imagining.
But there is a big difference between a Conference vote and action by the leadership, and every time.
we found the leaders more backward. Each time we persuaded them, they changed!
The big support for Labour in 1997 from our communities has not always been there. When we were successful, newspapers like the "Pink Paper" concentrated not on the advance, but on the fact that some Labour leader still held reactionary views.
While we were trying to "talk up" Labour support for equality, our press was denouncing them as betrayers! Now ironically the same community press has fallen in love with New Labour.
Throughout the years of struggle few have shared our view that the best way to win lesbian and gay equality was to work through the labour movement. Few have shared our commitment to involving and fighting for the needs of the most oppressed in our communities.
So is itall over now? Will Labour introduce equality laws for us? Will Britain, which today has the most reactionary laws on homosexuality, become a country which takes the lead in Europe?
We know Labour's public commitment. It will allow a free vote on the age of consent repeal Section 28 and incorporate the European convention on Human Rights into English law.
But when they do these things and whether they go beyond them depends to a great degree on what we do.
Don't wait
I fear that our communities will sit back and wait - wait for Tony Blair and rights from Europe. This will be the worst choice. Labour has many other priorities. After these there may be another election coming up, not the time to introduce anything controversial.
Maybe we should be looking at a second term of government. You can see it all drifting away and they can still argue - surely you prefer us to the Conservatives?
The ageof consent for gay men may be lowered in the autumn. Repealing Section 28 - in any case a gesture (albeit a significant one) -will not happen this year. A new Human Rights Commission is possible - but will it include us? Not automatically or by chance!
These reforms ignore the interests of whole sections of our community and concentrate on the interests of the noisiest and most powerful - white gay men:
Lesbians' rights to custody of their children, and fostering and adoption for all lesbians and gay men would be left out and the current discrimination would continue.
The specific concerns of black lesbians and gay men, of disabled lesbians and gay men would be ignored.
Whole areas where discrimination is not so much widespread as unchallenged, like in the education system, would remain, thus assuring the continued transmission of anti-gay ideology.
• Of course, an early opportunity to win an equal age of consent would be a fantastic victory. It will help to change the mood of the "public" over the issues, just as it did in 1994. It may create a momentum. but sustaining it may be very hard.
Tens of thousands of lesbians and gay men - yes, lesbians too, even though they are not directly affected - mobilised on the streets and in every town to call for this reform. But only hundreds took any part in the 1990 campaign against rules to prevent lesbians having access to fertility treatments. Apart from LCLGR gay men were invisi. ble.
My fear is that after the age of consent is made equal the thousands of gay men will go back to partying. They will be content, they will probably vote Labour again too, so Labour will be content. There may be few active supporters and therefore little weight behind our call to press on to more substantial reforms.
Partly for this reason, 1 am also very much in favour of Britain adopting the European Convention on Human Rights. We need an extension of the Convention so that lesbians and gay men are included explicitly.
For us in Britain two things are essential. The new measures must include the explicit outlawing of all discrimination on grounds of sexuality. Whatever commission or body is established our community must be present on an equal basis with all other groups represented there.
I fear these things are not in Labour's current thinking. We will have to campaign and to lobby to make sure they are.
None of this will be given to us. It will have to be fought for. We will have to campaign vigorously, in "In 1994, 80 per cent of Labour MPS voted for an public, trying to win support for our demands from other forces in society. We want the support of the labour movement not only because it is part of changing public opinion itself but because it is is just that - a movement of millions of people whose interests lie in unity, in equality, in common action.
We need to be a part of that movement for social progress, for social change.
To achieve legal equality for lesbians and gay men will be an enormous triumph. It will be a giant stride on the road to liberation- but it will not bring liberation.
The principles adopted by our organisation also suggest, we believe, a framework for campaigning in the European Union. Already for many years, people from Britain have appealed against our reactionary laws to European courts and in many cases have won.
Not surprisingly after 18 years of reaction many people believe that further integration into Europe would be good for lesbian and gay equality. European integration Wesupport the use of these institutions to achieve positive results but we must also be cautious because there are also negative aspects to these institutions.:
The institutions of Europe are not accountable to us. The Parliament has no power. We have no control over the council of ministers and even less over commissioners and bureaucrats. Genuine democracy is a necessary accompaniment to permanent social progTeSS Britain and the states of the European Union all possess the same capitalist system and all have the same social order, one in which homosexuality has never been allowed an equal role. Even in liberal homosexuality is not of society equal worth. It may even be "natural", but it is still not equal.
Nowhere are we treated as well as heterosexuals in anything we do or wish to do. I do not myself believe in marriage as I see it as the institutionalisation of an oppressive relationship between men and women But I support demands for recognition of lesbian and gay partnerships as a move towards equality. In how many countries can we make even that choice?
The crucial issue is the family. Tonv Blai " is against prejudice, but he also believes that the heterosexual two-person family is the superior way to raise children.
A campaign for equality which only seeks legal changes either within a single state or within the boundaries of the European Union has limitations. Even with the best laws, discrimination will continue. We will still be queer-bashed, still find it hard always to be honest about our sexuality.
When the day comes when we can associate freely with each other, when we have no fear of being attacked, or dismissed, or discriminated against, because of our sexuality; when there is never any question about being completely open about ourselves to everyone; when children are taught in school about lesbian and gay relationships as equal choices for them: then we will have achieved some kind of liberation. That is a big step from making these things not illegal, which is where we are still in Britain.
Social order
To get to the causes of this oppression, which has been around for a long time, means more than gaining an audience with liberal politicians. It means challenging the social order, alongside the many millions of others who have an interest in creating a better world.
As a socialist gay I view my work as being part of the struggle for a better world for lesbians and gay men, as part of a better world for all humanity, in Britain, in Europe, and beyond Europe too.
IO WALES