reasons to distrust
It’s awkward timing that bloggers should start digging through David Cameron’s amnesiac record on LGBT issues at the moment when Attitude declares that he wants “gay love.” The attempt to bury a vote against same-sex adoption rights in 2002 as a procedural wrinkle demonstrates remarkable tone-deafness, given the Conservative party’s track record on queer issues: the LGBT community has many, many reasons to distrust.
If Cameron is truly interested in “gay love” – and let’s all try to pretend I didn’t use that phrase – then he might have said something like this: “Yes, I should have voted in favour of same-sex adoption rights. That’s what I believe, and it was a mistake not to support the bill.” But he didn’t, and hasn’t.
Instead, Cameron has repeatedly claimed that he abstained – which is hardly the quality you’d want in a staunch ally. I prefer it when people who claim to support my rights are actually prepared to vote in favour of my rights. It’s more worrying again when you consider the Conservative shadow cabinet’s voting record, all of whom have voted against equalities legislation of one form or another. Over half of them voted against equalising the age of consent.
In other words, I think we can postpone the immediate stampede of the pink vote to the blue corner.