CONSERVATIVES ON EQUALITY

The Conservative Party has issued the following statement:
…”we do just want to say a couple of things”.

First, Chris Grayling has made clear that he voted for equality legislation – and indeed for civil partnerships – but has apologized if his comments caused any misunderstanding or offence.
Second, as a Party, we have changed. Yes, we’ve made mistakes in the past – not least Section 28, for which David Cameron has publicly apologised – but we hope you can judge us for what we are now.

And what we are now is a modern, progressive Party, with openly gay frontbenchers – including in the Shadow Cabinet – and candidates. In fact, if we win the next election, we’ll have more openly gay MPs than Labour.

In David Cameron’s first Party Conference speech as Conservative Leader he said that his support for marriage included civil partnerships – which we supported in Parliament. We backed new laws to prevent the incitement of hatred against gay people and we pushed the Government to introduce them.

We supported the Equality Bill.

If elected, we’ll build on all the progress made on gay rights over the last decade:
- We will change the rules so that historic convictions for consensual gay sex will be removed from a person’s criminal record
- We will tackle homophobic bullying in schools
- We will extend tax advantages and new rights to flexible parental leave to those in civil partnerships

Gay people aren’t the property of any political party. They want to decide on the big issues like any other elector.
And we want gay people to be able to vote for the modern Conservative Party because of our vision for the country and for change, safe in the knowledge that equality is here to stay.

Simon Kirby, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Kemptown said “If elected I hope to be a powerful voice for the LGTB community here in Brighton Kemptown. The Conservative Party has changed, and I am unequivocal about my support for equality”.