Peter Tatchell has been banned by both main parties from celebrating Pride
At a launch reception for Pride London at City Hall on Monday the human rights campaigner was refused an invitation.This was in spite of the fact that he is a patron of Pride London.
According to Tatchell the Mayor’s office ignored Pride’s recommendations on who to invite and decided to exclude him from the event.
In a statement Tatchell said: ‘Was I excluded because I recently criticised the Conservatives for joining a right-wing European Parliament grouping that includes the homophobic and anti-Semitic Polish Law and Justice Party?...
’Tory LGBTs got plenty of invites. Is Boris manipulating the Pride events for party political advantage?’
This is not the only Pride reception that Peter Tatchell has been barred from.
He will also not be attending a reception given by Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the morning of Pride.
Other members of the gay press and LGBT rights campaigners have been invited, but once again Tatchell has not been made welcome.
Tatchell claims that this is because he has been a vocal critic of the Government’s LGBT policies, and follows a similar incident earlier this year when his name was taken off a list of invitees at the Prime Minister’s personal request.
Despite the Prime Minister professing his gay-friendly credentials, Tatchell insists that Gordon Brown is backing homophobic discrimination.
Brown’s government said Tatchell ‘supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not equality. They are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for gay and straight couples.
’Gay and bisexual men are prohibited from donating blood, even if they always practise safe sex and have tested HIV-negative.
’Successive Labour Home Secretaries have given visas and work permits to reggae singers who incite the murder of gay people. Such incitement is a serious criminal offence.
’The government's current Equality Bill is supposed to ensure equal rights for everyone but it specifically denies lesbians and gays protection against harassment….
‘Instead of remedying the remaining issues of homophobic discrimination, Gordon Brown seems more interested in isolating and excluding LGBT voices who continue to insist on full LGBT human rights.’
Pride London takes place in the capital on 4 July. Gordon Brown will not be marching in the Parade, citing ‘security reasons’, but will be represented by his wife. Sarah.
