UKIP vs the EU: Your LGBT Rights

queer bar in East London.

Thursday 22nd May sees the European elections happening across Europe, which is your chance to choose who represents you in the European Union summits of Brussels and Strasbourg. 46 million people are eligible to vote in the UK, where currently anti-EU party UKIP are leading the polls. At QX we analyse the LGBT rights record of UKIP verses that of the EU, and discuss why you should use your vote. 

By Patrick Cash


Did you hear the one about the UKIP counsellor (David Silvester) who said that gay marriage was causing the winter floods? Or what about the one where the UKIP local election candidate (Harry Perry) said that ‘David Cameron is a gay loving nutcase and homosexuality is an abomination’? Or even the one (and this is a good one) where the UKIP Member of the European Parliament (Roger Helmer) called gays ‘abnormal’?

 

The trouble is they’re not jokes, they’re all entirely real and publically aired views from members of the UK Independence Party. These three examples only scrape the tip of the iceberg when it comes to UKIP’s track record on its members and official candidates’ attitudes to homosexuality. Go to gay media outlet PinkNews and type in ‘UKIP’, where you can view article after article recording UKIP’s torrent of virulently anti-gay views dating back to 2010 and beyond.

UKIP ostensibly stand for independence from the European Union, which they view as too controlling over UK laws, but many critics have voiced how their stance thinly disguises abject racism. Party leader Nigel Farage has defended their recent advertising campaign – which includes a picture of a pointing finger alongside the text ’26 million people in Europe are looking for work. And whose jobs are they are after?’ – as ‘a hard-hitting reflection of reality’. To many though, it may seem like scare tactics designed to unscrupulously capitalise politically on economic worry, by creating easy scapegoats and demonising immigrants.

Which is why it’s worrying that UKIP are currently leading in the European election polls. When a political party and its members hold deeply xenophobic views, it is unlikely that they are going to be raving liberals in other social areas. If UKIP were to prove themselves by doing well in the European elections on the 22nd, then, at worse case scenario, it’s not unfeasible they may become real, dangerous candidates for winning a future UK general election. Should they do so and immediately pull us out of the EU, UKIP become essentially the highest power we as citizens answer to in terms of LGBT rights.

But that’s fine, because UKIP aren’t homophobic, are they? Oh wait, what were all those funny jokes that begun this article? And one I forgot to tell you, was the one about Paul Forrest, the UKIP local election candidate in Liverpool, who said that gay men are ‘ten times more likely’ to be child abusers than ‘normal men’.

And what do the EU do for LGBT rights? Ilga Europe, the European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, reports on its website how ‘over the last two decades the EU has become increasingly committed to the active promotion of human rights’. This includes:

The 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, empowering the EU to ‘take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation’.

The 2000 European Charter of Fundamental Rights, the first international human rights charter to include sexual orientation discrimination as a prohibited ground of discrimination.

A series of resolutions of the European Parliament, opening up the possibility of making progress with eliminating discrimination in all areas of activity.

In summation, within the limited amount of space I have here to discuss a complex issue, the EU has been seriously working for many years now to protect LGBTI rights across its member states. It would not only be a step backward for the UK, but a humourless joke if we were to allow a heavily bigoted party such as UKIP to reclaim power from this institution. The big worry is that UKIP are no longer just a joke.

 

• Use your voice and vote on 22nd May, and protect your own rights and those of your community. 

 

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/topic/ukip/

http://www.ilga-europe.org/home/guide_europe/eu/lgbt_rights

Advertisement

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here