LGBT voters switch from Cameron's Conservatives to Clegg's Liberal Democrats

Finally, the LGBT voters of Britain, well the ones that read Pink News anyway are starting to see that perhaps the Conservatives and David Cameron are not quite what they thought they were.

The recent Pink News poll shows that David Cameron's recent Gay Times interview and Chris Graylings comments about bed & breakfast owners having the right to turn away gay customers are having an effect on the views of LGBT voters.

The Conservative record on supporting gay rights is nothing short of shameful. David Cameron cannot pretend a quick apology for Section 28 will make up for the entrenched and often bigoted views of his hand-picked frontbench colleagues in the House of Commons.

David Cameron and the Conservatives like to pretend that they have changed but they remain the same old Tories.

The Liberal Democrats are now the most popular political party among the LGBT community.
Last month, 25% of the LGBT community said that they would vote Conservative at the upcoming general election, 25% said they'd back the Liberal Democrats and 28% said they'd vote Labour.

However, this month, just a day before a general election is expected to be called, counting only the votes of those that had taken part in the March poll, 20% of the LGBT community have said that they will back the Conservatives, a fall of 5%. Support for Labour remains unchanged at 28%, while support for the Liberal Democrats has increased by 5% to 29%.

The Conservatives still remain the most popular party among those aged 23 and under, but at 35% this month, this is 5% down on our poll a month ago. 32% of those too young to vote at the last election said they would vote Liberal Democrat and just 13% said they'd vote Labour.

Labour's record over the last thirteen years has not convinced that particular group.

PinkNews.co.uk found that 30% of LGBT people felt less favourably of Mr Cameron following an interview broadcast on Channel 4 News, where Mr Cameron was unable to answer questions about votes in the European parliament and the decision to give MPs and peers a free vote issues relating to gay rights.

Last month, 25% of Pink News readers said they'd like to see David Cameron become Prime Minister, ahead of Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg. This month, just 20% of our readers backed David Cameron, 29% backed Gordon Brown and 28% backed Nick Clegg. An increase of 5% for both Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg.

57% of respondents said that the economy is the most important policy issue they will consider when casting their vote, 16% LGBT rights, 9% healthcare, 6% education, 5% foreign policy, 4% immigration and 2% crime.

The PinkNews.co.uk poll had already begun prior to The Observers story of comments by the Conservative MP Chris Grayling where he backed the rights of bed and breakfast owners to ban gay couples.

But the swing from Conservative to Liberal Democrat did increase markedly in the early hours of Sunday.

The voting records of current Conservative MPs who are standing in the coming general election show that:

• One in six, voted in favour of Section 28 in 1988. A sixth voted against its repeal in 2003 including David Cameron and a third of the Shadow Cabinet
• One in ten voted against dropping the age of consent for gay men from 21 to 18 in 1994
• Almost one in five, voted against the Sexual Offences Amendment Bill in 1999 which aimed to reduce the age at which anal sex was legal from 18 to 16
• One in three voted to allow only heterosexual, married couples to adopt in 2002 including seven members of the Shadow Cabinet
• One in three voted against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations in March 2007 which allows the Secretary of State to make regulations defining discrimination and harassment on grounds of sexual orientation. This included thirty-three, or a third of frontbenchers and four of the Shadow Cabinet
• The Conservative Party opposed The Equality Bill 2008-09. Nineteen members of the Shadow Cabinet joined attempts to block the bill which will introduce a single 'public duty' requiring all publicly-funded bodies to pro-actively promote equality across the board and remove barriers to fair service provision

More stories you can read about the Conservatives and their LGBT record, or lack of it;

Tory LGB group in turmoil over Cameron's catastrophic gay times interview
Cameron crashes as Popplewell asks about Conservative Gay Rights record
Cameron slips up on gay equality - Channel 4 News
Cameron's Conservatives tells Republicans in USA to embrace gay rights
Gay friendly Tories are just wolves in sheep's clothing

Nick Griffin claims BNP are more gay friendly but finds gays "creepy"

Over on Pink News, they are covering Iain Dale's interview with Nick Griffin for Total Politics (no it isn't an Iain Dale and Pink News love fest).

So, the new gay friendly BNP want to ban civil partnerships, only allow gay couples to adopt if the childrens homes are full and wants to ban the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

So, the BNP want to follow the Conservative lead and introduce it's own Section 28?

Nick Griffin said this of homosexuality itself;

"It's unfamiliar, it’s odd and I’m afraid it is creepy. Grown men kissing in public is creepy to most people. You don’t often see it but if you do see it, it’s not a matter of homophobia, it’s odd and you have to explain it to little kids and so on – that’s strange."

Everyone else manages to explain these things okay, you can just say they love each other, isn't that enough?

he said: "Marriage is only between a man and a women and ideally with kids."

He then went onto explain;

it was "better if two gay men are in a stable relationship rather than cottaging all over the place"

Oh Mr Griffin, if only.  Honestly, what a pathetic statement to make.

On gay adoption, he said that he would be "inclined to agree" with gay couples adopting, but only "if we reach the stage where there are so many children in children’s homes that you run out of would-be adopted ideal families".

So, that is Mr Griffin, leader of the right wing BNP party explaining how his party is gay friendly.

What a load of round shaped spheres, with brass tacks on.  Your party is as homophobic now as it ever has been.

Pink News readers question Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg

Pink News has done their normal election run up leaders questions session and this month was the turn of Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.  It gives their readers the opportunity to post whatever questions they like to Nick.

The overwhelming subject mentioned was gay marriage, showing how important an issue this is for Pink News readers. Other popular questions were on homophobic violence, faith schools and LGBT asylum seekers.

You can read the questions and Nick's answers here.

Conservatives slip into third position in latest gay poll

So, despite all of the rhetoric and other nonsense from the Tory party the gay community are finally realising that under the lights, suits and slogans the awful Tory record on gay rights stands.

The Pink News poll closed today at 2pm, only twenty four hours after David Cameron started speaking and the Tories were in third place with 22% behind the Liberal Democrats who had 25%, while Labour led with 36%.

Pink News ran a voting intention poll back in June this year, the Tories were on 39% and Labour 29%, so although Labour have dropped increased by 7% the Tories plummeted by a massive 17% in just four months and more importantly during their own conference and with it being the first time they have held a conference pride the support just sapped away.

I am sure Ben Summerskill's veto of the gay Tory event this week because David Cameron invited (homophobic) Polish MEP Michal Kaminski to the Tory conference, where Ben Summerskill described Kaminski's views as "extreme and offensive".

The Pink News poll also asked readers if the Conservative Party was still homophobic, a massive 67% said the Conservatives are still homophobic.

I still believe the Tories are the old homophobic relics now that they were when they introduced Section 28 - you can read some of my recent blog postings - Conservatives, the Waffen SS and homophobia, then the Conservative MEP for the East Midlands who claimed homophobia doesn't exist, then the vote on Lithuanian Section 28 where the Conservative hypocritical British MEPs abstained and the time when the Tory Leader of the Conservative group on Bristol City Council, criticised a local LGBT group for receiving a Big Lottery Fund grant saying it was misguided.

I am afraid the Tories are not gay friendly, this is all just a show to get the pink vote next year, finally the gay community are seeing through this farce that Cameron is putting up and realising the truth.