Green London Mayoral candidate Sian Berry on what she'd do for LGBT Londoners

As Londoners prepare to take to the polls to select Boris Johnson’s successor as London Mayor on May 5, we’re finding out what the five main candidates (Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, Green & UKIP) will be doing for the capital’s LGBT community in the face of closing venues, rising HIV rates and increasing levels of recorded hate crime. We’ll be speaking to a different candidate each day this week, and first up, it’s the Green Party’s Sian Berry…

Along with gay UKIP candidate Peter Whittle, you were the only Mayoral candidate who recently attended the ‘Queer Question Time’ at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. Why are LGBT rights important to you personally?

Well it’s always been an issue I’ve worked on, as the Greens at City Hall have. It’s just a really fundamental part of human rights I think. When I was the Mayoral candidate in 2008, we had civil partnerships, and there was a lot of resistance against moving towards same-sex marriage. I was the only candidate speaking in favour of that at hustings, and again I was one of the only candidates turning up to those sorts of things. London is such a leader in this area, and we have been able to do stuff about it at a London level. I think it’s important that London’s Mayor stands up for LGBT rights.

Do you think London leads the way for the rest of the country on LGBT rights, and inclusivity in general?

Yeah, we attract many people who have migrated from other countries, people who are maybe escaping attitudes at home, or in other cities, and they know that London will be a safe place for them – that we have different attitudes here.

One of the biggest stories in the gay media this past year has been the closing down of historic gay venues in London, like the Black Cap in Camden, Madame JoJo’s in Soho. Do you think there is a case for some of these venues, and perhaps Soho in general, to be protected as part of our cultural history?

Absolutely. I just mentioned the many cultures who have made London their home, and this is quite recent history, but it is our heritage. So venues that are significant to the gay community are really important to preserve for our history. The Black Cap in Camden was taken over by the same company who took over a pub in my ward, so I’ve been quite involved in trying to help the campaign there, and sharing notes on what that company does. We’re winning both of those campaigns now, and it’s important everyone pulls together. We have to look out for these things because otherwise if we don’t protect stuff, everything will just become bland.

It taps into the wider issue of the housing crisis of of course, because when these venues are being bought, closed and turned into residential homes, they’re not being made into affordable homes.

Absolutely. It’s not just a big loss culturally, it’s a loss for such a non-Londoner reason! These houses are not being sold to Londoners to provide homes which will solve the housing crisis. We need new homes, but we need ones we can afford to buy. So the London Plan needs to be very clear about homes that are bought and left empty, homes that are bought and are buy-to-let. We can do an awful lot with planning powers, because there’s such evidence that we have a crisis in London, we can justify some quite strong policies in the London Plan.

We’ve discussed the perks of London as a multicultural hub, but there is a negative side for LGBT people who live here. The Met Police reported an increase of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in the year up to July 2015. Some people have explained that simply in terms of more people actually reporting crimes – do you think the increase is real? Is there a rise in intolerance in certain parts of the capital?

I think there is a real increase in hate crimes of all types, and that is really worrying. London needs to have a stronger direction set by the Mayor. We need to foster a culture of togetherness, and foster understanding between people of all kinds. At the moment we have a Mayor who’s not even slightly interested in London right now, frankly, but also has not carried on the tradition of previous Mayor by supporting different cultural events, by going to things like Pride and Chinese New Year. We need to do more of that kind of thing.

The other thing we obviously need to do is put more police time into tackling them, and taking them seriously, and making sure we get justice when these things happen. Police time is spread across a whole load of things which I think should be a lower priority, and as Mayor, I would be able to set time priorities for the police, and focus on that. I would work with communities to find out what they want the police to be focusing on, because if you ask the police to go and tackle something, they don’t always go about it the right way, and I think we should be working closer with people in setting those priorities and directions.

You mention there about going out and taking part in events like Pride. We saw a controversy last summer when the LGBT wing of UKIP was banned from officially taking part in London Pride. Was that fair, when we consider homophobic comments made by some members of the party, or should we accept everyone?

I think the main issue people had with UKIP was the hypocrisy of their actual policies, and the comments of many of their parliamentary candidates last year, and the positions they were taking on gay rights and LGB issues of all kind. It wasn’t about individual people not being able to be involved, but rather the hypocrisy of that party being represented, and having a banner there. I do kind of agree with the idea of not allowing there to be an official UKIP delegation, but welcoming more individual members of UKIP to be out, to be fighting for gay rights within the party – that is something we should be doing. It’s a tricky one, because you don’t want to discourage people from within UKIP from amending their policies, but having a banner was really problematic.

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It taps into the other current debate around no-platforming, and whether we should be banning people from speaking at events if they have certain views, or if we should be inviting them along to challenge them, and maybe change some opinions.

Yeah exactly, that’s always the question, and you have to draw a line somewhere. I, for example, have very strong opinions about racism too, and although many of UKIP’s positions are quite racist, the BNP are explicitly racist and sometimes express views around violence, so that’s where I draw the line, and do sometimes no-platform them. But I think it’s up to everyone to think about where they draw the line between free speech, and hearing and arguing views – or saying, no that’s beyond the pale.

One of the biggest issues which still faces gay men in London is the disproportionate levels of HIV – one in eight gay men in London are HIV positive. Under the Conservatives we’ve seen cuts to services, and on the other hand, they have ruled out statutory sex education in schools. What can be done in the capital to protect services, and to tackle HIV among gay men?

I went to visit 56 Dean Street, who are doing some fantastic work with the express diagnosis, and the quick treatment – all of which are very effective in preventing transmission. It just makes sense to make sure that service is fully-funded, and there are things the Mayor can do to help with that, to make sure that local authorities and the NHS keep funding services like that, which are very accessible to people, and do help reduce stigma, and help diagnoses.

Education is a huge issue. Caroline Lucas has tried to make PSHE compulsory in schools. Within London schools, they do have the option to invite in people from the voluntary and community sectors to give education, and I think they really should be doing that. Again, the Mayor’s office can do work to help fund and encourage groups who will provide free lessons to school, and events, and workshops, and all sorts of things which will help to educate children. But statutory sex education in schools would be so much better.

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Finally, a lot of people would probably say you don’t have much of a shot at becoming Mayor; that the Green Party don’t have the support or experience to take this a role like this. Why should voters take a chance on you?

Well I would challenge the claim that we don’t have experience. We’ve had London Assembly Members since the very beginning, in 2000, and they’ve done so much to influence policy around London. They have held the balance of power over the Mayor’s budget for four years. They’ve done marvellous things like bring in the Living Wage Unit, and they’ve made a difference. We do now have the experience to run London, and it’s not just about personalities. It’s about knowing the details, and being able to manage complicated things like transport. I’ve been a campaigner in transport for more than twelve years. I really know how transport in London works. So I think the combination of the experience of the Green Party, and the experience I’ve got – and the fact that all around the world, outsider candidates are winning elections because they are listening to the people – I think that gives us a chance this time.

London’s Mayoral election takes place on May 5. For more information on Sian’s campaign, visit www.sianberry.london.

Words: Ben Kelly

Green London Mayoral candidate Sian Berry on what she’d do for LGBT Londoners

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