The 79 per cent vote to implement Labour's policy for lesbian and gay rights was one of the more striking victories of this among supporters of the policy is well tempered with realism. There is a serious likelihood that the embarrassed silence with which the Party leadership arranged for the issue to be quickly troversially despatched Blackpool will remain their approach in the run up to a general Peter Purton, Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights The press and the other parties will not De so reticent. tionary furore whipped up against the pro-lesbian and gay policies Labour local councils like Haringey and Ealing is a mild taster by comWiLs VICIOuS mongering homophobia we can expect in a national campaign. A recent article by Paul Johnson in the Daily Mail claims that a Labour ment would aid the spread of AIDS epidemic through its lesbian and gay rights policy - when the truth is of course the opposite. It is evidence of the way that the ruling class and its mmons will rutiessiy. division within and among the working class and the oppressed. The only way to defeat such a campaign, indeed the only way to avoid capitulating to 1S to it head on and without compromise, in the way of the GLC and other local authorities.
Fortunately, that 79 per cent vote is not just a leadership manoeuvre! Years of work by Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights (LCLGR) and by organisations and individuals in the trade unions, through created by the miners strike, mean that the base of commitment to year's But euphoria and unconThe Ical of scaregovern ing.
Support the exploit every thirds.
Axecutive theretore policy.
that we get the and the break- detailed implementation lesbian and gay rights is now much others more solid. The support won in 1985 was consolidated at Blackpool. John posals Golding failed to prevent the NCU delegation from reaffirming its backThe experience of Wapping and the solidarity of Lesbians and Gays Printers print unions. Under internal and ex ternal pressure, the GMBATU changed its vote and guaranteed the twothe If some members of the National making their unanimous recommen- tally dation of support, the massive majority which was in part a fruit of that cynicism will be exploited to the full by LCLGR and the supporters of the Immediately, this means ensuring promised national working party and that it oversees the like For a.comprehensive policy. But lesbian and gay law activists have no intention of leaving to organise for our rights. LCLGR has published its own pro'Legislation for Lesbian and Gay Rights: A Manifesto'. They will be the basis for a national conterence in London in May 1987, sponsored jointly with the NCCL and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. It is aimed at the broadest forces from the lesbian and gay movements and the womens movement and already has sponsorship of Wally movement tigures.
LCLGR's Manifesto is fundamendifferent previous reform campaigns. It starts with the needs of lesbians and gay men, with what . we think possible. recognises the role of the law and the state in the oppression of lesbians, and is not narrowly restricted to male. oriented specific clauses of legislation Cane 1967 Sexual Offences Crucially, it recognises the role of the supporting justifying heterosexism in society, and therefore its validity as a target not just in terms of protecting individuals, but also in terms of campaigning society.
therefore, is that treats homosexuality as abnormal OI unlawful even when it is not criminal. In Stalllig in its "homosexual sex acts... arein no wav inferior from the standpoint of public morality or policy or the public interest to heterosexual acts' basis of legal oppression is turned on its head and the way cleared for subsequent clauses which make it illegal to employment (clause 2(i)) or in child custody and adoption (clause 2(ii)). Clause 2(iv)) strikes at another root when it declares that public policy in favour of marriage or against sexual relations outside of law not Act.
Socialist Action 21 Nov 1986
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lesbians against pit closures