Eleanor Margolis on what the election manifestos offer LGBT people

Now that all major party manifestos have been published, many of us are wondering who has the most to offer the LGBT community. No prizes for guessing it isn’t the Conservatives. With one lonely mention of anything gay in an eighty-page treatise to “a brighter, more secure future” the Tories are relying almost exclusively on their passage of same-sex marriage to attract the queer vote. So who, based entirely on their LGBT equality promises, should get our vote?

Tackling homophobic bullying in schools has been a popular pledge. Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens have all outlined approaches to this problem in their manifestos. Labour has ratified its earlier suggestions of including discussion of same-sex relationships in children’s sex education, promising to introduce compulsory “sex and relationships” education in schools. A Labour government would also encourage something they’ve referred to as “character education”, aimed at “working with schools to stop the blight of homophobic bullying.” Although I can only take a wild guess at the meaning of the phrase “character education”, the Tories certainly aren’t offering it.

The Lib Dems have promised to fight homophobia in schools, by extending the Equality Act to “prevent bullying and harassment in schools based on sexual orientation and gender reassignment”. They’ve also made a bid to tackle homophobia in professional sport by pledging to criminalise anti-gay chanting at football matches. Racist football chants are already illegal, so it only seems fair that homophobic ones should be taken seriously too. Like Labour, the Lib Dems would introduce mandatory sex and relationships education to the National Curriculum. As would the Greens. Although Natalie Bennett’s party would go one step further and require all schools to have “an anti-bullying programme that explicitly combats homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying.”

Meanwhile, the Tories have pledged zilch on tackling homophobic bullying. So what do they have to offer? Well, they’ve pledged to pardon all those convicted, historically, of gay sex offences. As important as it is to see others pardoned like Alan Turing has been, the only promise the Conservatives are making the LGBT community is, largely, a symbolic one (which is also offered by the Greens and the Lib Dems, by the way). Fighting today’s homophobia is a much heftier task and one that the Tories are unwilling to undertake.

Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens, on the other hand, are all (to varying degrees) looking to the future. Especially when it comes to homophobic persecution abroad. Bearing in mind there are chunks of the globe still plagued by rabid anti-LGBT legislation and cultural attitudes, promises to tackle worldwide homophobia are extremely important. Labour has pledged to appoint an International LGBT Rights Envoy and “work towards the decriminalisation of homosexuality worldwide”. Big talk there, Labour. The Lib Dems would “promote international recognition of same-sex marriage”, which would include allowing British embassies abroad to perform gay marriage ceremonies.

Yet again though, the Greens win on number of policies. Their manifesto includes a pledge to urge all Commonwealth members to “end the criminalisation of homosexuality and to protect LGBTIQ citizens against discrimination and hate crime.” They also, and this is a biggie, have promised to end the detention of LGBTQI asylum seekers and the “culture of disbelief” that so often gets in the way of them being granted refugee status. Last year, the Home Office was discovered to be asking gay asylum seekers degrading questions in order to “prove” their sexuality. This is a practice that badly needs to stop and the Greens are the only party so far with a policy against it. What’s more, their anti-austerity policies, especially when it comes to the NHS, would mean more funding for HIV services and easier access to gender reassignment for trans people. Both the Lib Dems and the Greens would consider revising the current restrictions on gay and bi men who donate blood.

Oh and, in case you were wondering, as Attitude reported recently, the word “gay” or acronym “LGBT” is completely absent from the UKIP manifesto.

Eleanor Margolis (pictured above) is a New Statesman columnist and freelance journalist. Her column, Lez Miserable, appears weekly online and covers everything from queer politics to online dating.