Conservative Chris Grayling MP in homophobic comments interview

Only two months ago Sir Michael Scholar warned Chris Grayling MP that the way he used the figures for violent crime were "likely to mislead the public".

Well, now Chris Grayling is embroiled in a homophobic row.

Last month a gay couple were turned away from a B&B run by a Christian couple as reported in the Guardian, well now Conservative MP Chris Grayling has defended this and is in fact urging other B& B owners to do exactly the same, but not hotel owners!

From today's Observer;

The row will alarm David Cameron as he prepares for a general election that looks certain to be called on Tuesday. The Tory leader has gone out of his way to win over gay and lesbian voters by stressing his new-look party's liberal credentials. Last year, he apologised for section 28, the law passed by Margaret Thatcher's Tory government in the late 1980s that bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Cameron has also voted in favour of civil partnerships.

However, his progress in attracting the gay vote has been halted by a series of disputes involving his own MPs and MEPs. Tory MEPs last year refused to support a motion that condemned a new homophobic law in Lithuania.

Cameron was also left embarrassed during a recent interview with Gay Times, broadcast by Channel 4 News, in which he admitted he did not know his party's position on a series of votes involving gay rights issues in the UK and European parliaments.

Chris Grayling said in the interview to the Centre for Policy Studies;

I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."

Sorry Chris, it really doesn't work like that, irrespective if it is their home or not, once they decide to open a business, in this case as a bed and breakfast they have to comply with the law.

And being homophobic is clearly against the law!

This is clearly yet another example proving that the Conservatives are not gay friendly, they are still the same old Tories, Section 28 and homophobia is in their genes I'm afraid.  Whatever rhetoric David Cameron comes out with, they are still the same old Tories with their old and out of touch views.

It is time for David Cameron to act, sack Chris Grayling for his outdated homophobic views.

Cameron crashes as Popplewell asks about Conservative Gay Rights record

As we near the General Election it is not only the political parties setting out their stalls to the voters of the UK, but also the Party Leaders as well setting out their pitch to be the next Prime Minister.

Let's face it for months many journalists and pundits all over the land thought David Cameron and the Conservatives had it all sown up, those of us within the political bubble perhaps thought differently, especially dependent on which party you happen to be a member of.

Well, as we know if Gordon Brown or Nick Clegg trip up or have a complete awful day or interview, Cameron's Conservatives are screaming from every blog, tweet and facebook status update within seconds.

However, when David Cameron himself does it, then they go on the proverbial attack as seen here on Iain Dale's blog. I normally have a lot of respect for Iain's musings, despite his politics and choice of football team, but on this occasion Iain has fallen into the trap that many of us are tempted to do when our leader or Party cocks up and just run for the battlements to pour boiling oil over the oncoming online attackers.

Yesterday, David Cameron was doing a joint interview, where as he was being asked questions for Gay Times as he was also being filmed by Channel Four , this is fairly commonplace now.  However, Dave just completely lost the plot and went into a serious meltdown.

The interview seemed to start well with the interviewer Martin Popplewell asking David Cameron about equality and then moving onto a key vote in the European Parliament about Lithuania introducing it's own version of Section 28.

I blogged about this very vote back in September 2009, you can read it here - Conservatives are complete hypocrites on LGBT issues as Section 28 raises its ugly head again - well Cameron just got tongue tied and although was being honest and saying I don't know about this particular vote just got himself worked up.

Now, Iain Dale said in his blog post that hardly anyone within the LGBT community knew about this vote - Pink News which is good at covering LGBT issues political and not so covered it back in September 2009, when the vote was first discussed, then December 2009 when it reared it's head again and then in February this year when the law was introduced.

Oh yes, and that small lobbying group, Amnesty International were on the case as well.  Apart from that and many thousands of people across the world Iain, no one noticed it.

Camerons team let him down yesterday, he should have been better briefed, if someone had asked me what does Nick Clegg need to know about for an interview with Gay Times, that vote would have been on my list!

Anyway, watch it for yourselves and see what you think?

Gay friendly Tories are just wolves in sheep's clothing

We all know that with this being election year lots of groups are being targeted by political parties, well the Tories are trying to court the pink vote, or LGBT voters.

Well now the "shameful" Tory record on voting for gay rights issues is clear for all to see, and they aren't quite as gay friendly as you may think!

A quarter of David Cameron's shadow cabinet have previously voted against gay rights legislation in the House of Commons.

The research by the Liberal Democrats looked at issues including Section 28, adoption and the age of consent. It lists the voting records of current Tory MPs who will be standing in this year's general election.

One in six current Tory MPs standing for re-election voted in favour of Section 28 back in 1988.

A sixth voted against Section 28's repeal in 2003 including a third of the shadow cabinet. David Cameron, Francis Maude and William Hague were among them.

Yes, that's right, David Cameron voted against the repeal of the most anti gay piece of legislation ever - a complete and utter hypocrite!

One in ten of them voted against reducing 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 reduced the age at which anal sex is legal from 18 to 16. Seven of these, including shadow equality minister Theresa May, are in the current Cameron shadow cabinet.

One in three voted to allow only heterosexual married couples to adopt in 2002, including seven members of the current Cameron 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 33 – a third – of frontbenchers and four members of the shadow cabinet.

Nineteen members of Cameron's shadow cabinet joined an attempt to block the Equality Bill which would introduce a single ‘public duty’ requiring all publicly-funded bodies to proactively promote equality.

Of the 31 shadow cabinet members, ten voted at least once against gay equality. One, the shadow Europe minister, Mark Francois, voted against repealing Section 28, allowing gay couples to adopt and 2007's Sexual Orientation Regulations. He also joined the attempt to block the Equality Bill.

The Tory 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.

Can you imagine what will happen to gay rights if they win the general election later this year?