We’ve achieved a great deal – but there is still so much more to do

By Stephen Twigg

I attended my first Labour Party Conference as a 17 year old delegate in 1984. My local Party had agreed to a motion supporting Lesbian & Gay Equality. Labour had no policy on LGBT issues at that time and we failed to secure a debate in 1984. I joined the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights as it was then called (now LGBT Labour). A year later we secured the first ever Conference debate and a good Equality policy was passed.

25 years later the progress has been remarkable. People often ask me what the key factors have been in the dramatic change in the legal and social position for LGBT people since 1997. I always start with the small and determined groups of activists who lit the flame for equality in the much more difficult era of Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s – persuading trades unions and the Labour Party to take up the cause. Then, of course, our opponents went too far with the notorious Section 28 passed by Parliament in 1988. This provided an unintended boost to LGBT campaigning including the creation of the Stonewall Group.

The progress since ’97 on LGBT rights is surely one of Labour’s finest achievements – including repealing Section 28, Civil Partnerships, immigration rights for same sex couples, equal age of consent, rights for trans people, protection from discrimination in goods and services. It is true that the Government was timid about this at the beginning but after a couple of years its confidence grew and a set of changes have been made that I am optimistic will last forever.

The challenge is where we do we go from here? Legal rights were always seen as a necessary but not sufficient condition for overcoming prejudice and discrimination. Violence, bullying and prejudice continue. We need to ensure that all public agencies are ready and willing to protect citizens and employees and to provide a safe environment for all.

A massive issue is homophobic bullying in schools. Bullying scars the lives of so many children and young people. All bullying needs to be addressed but we need to recognise the specific forms that bullying takes – including on grounds of actual or perceived sexuality. I welcome the higher profile of this work from the Department for Children, Schools & Families and the commitment of the education trades unions. However the key to success lies in individual schools and how they deal with bullying. Many reading this will be school governors – governors have both a duty and the opportunity to ensure that schools not just have a good anti-bullying policy on paper, but that it is effective in practice.

Bullying is not confined to the classroom – it happens in workplaces and local communities. Many LGBT people remain fearful for their safety and do not come out. Agencies such as the Police force have adopted incredibly progressive paper policies but there remains work to be done to ensure that these are carried out. Trans people continue to face some of the worst hostility – including from within the LGB community.

And the struggle for Equality does not stop at the English Channel. I think now is the time for Equality issues to feature higher on UK and EU foreign policy agendas – pressing governments globally to take action whether it be against homophobic propositions passed in California or the execution of people in Iran simply for being gay. There is a very long way to go but we can learn a lot from progress not only here but in other countries. When Apartheid ended in South Africa a new constitution was adopted including a commitment to equality on the basis of sexuality. Let the rest of the world learn from that fine example.