It is now nearly twenty one years since I stood up at a rally in Rugby, as a young, fresh-faced and newly-elected MP with one of the most marginal majorities in the country, and told the world: ‘My name is Chris Smith. I’m the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, and I’m gay.’
I was, to be honest, terrified of what the public reaction might be. These were not easy times for the issue of lesbian and gay equality to be placed quite so firmly in the public domain. The law discriminated in a host of ways against us. Police officers had been using entrapment techniques in Earl’s Court and elsewhere. Customs and Excise were about to raid ‘Gay’s the Word’ bookstore. People were being sacked from the armed services for being gay. Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman, the thoroughly risible Tory MP for Lancaster, had stood up in parliament to say that it was ‘quite right’ that the building housing Capital Gay newspaper had been fire-bombed. And the Tories were already planning their homophobic tactics for the next two general elections.
There were those of us, however, who felt strongly that Labour’s traditional commitment to equality, and especially to the principle of the equal worth of all individuals in a supportive society, could not be allowed simply to exclude those who had a different sexual orientation from the mainstream. We argued for our cause, not saying that anyone should be put on a pedestal; not claiming that anyone should have special rights; but simply making the case for equal treatment and, even more importantly, an equal law.
We made speeches; we put motions to conference; we persuaded trades unions; we talked to constituency parties; and, inch-by-inch, we gradually began to make progress in our party. But for a while the party remained embarrassed by the issue. It was as if we were being told that everyone agreed with us, of course, but that we shouldn’t say anything about it to the public because it might scare them. Famously, Patricia Hewitt wrote in a Fabian pamphlet that ‘the gay issue cost us dear among pensioners.’
Fast forward, now, to our current political condition. The embarrassment has virtually gone. Public attitudes have changed beyond recognition and, with that change, the fear that stalked these issues in the early nineties has disappeared. When we want, now, to drive a wedge into the Tory party and reveal to the world how truly un-modernised they are, proposals to bring lesbian and gay equality a step nearer form an excellent way of doing so. They have become, as it were, a litmus test for modernity in present-day-politics. And rightly so, because they are all about accepting a contemporary world, contemporary culture, and setting them in the context of enduring and fair principles. The disappearance of the embarrassment is to be warmly welcomed.
And along with this change in tone and atmosphere has come, also, a series of fundamental changes in the law. The age of consent has been equalised. The wretched section 28, symbolic of so much discrimination, has gone. Sexual orientation has ceased to be an issue in the armed services. Discrimination has gone from the diplomatic service. Longstanding same-sex partnerships are recognised for immigration. It is now much more difficult (although, sadly, not yet impossible) to discriminate in employment. And, perhaps most significantly of all, from December of this year partners of the same sex will be able to register as civil partners, and receive nearly all the rights, benefits and responsibilities – including pension entitlements – that they would have if they were married.
It is hard to realise, now, the sheer scale of what has been achieved in this legislation. It is a real tribute to the group of ministers – especially Barbara Roche and Jacqui Smith – who have, over the last few years, nurtured, cherished and brought this law to the statute book. (It is also, incidentally, a standing argument against those who seek to claim that having a Labour government makes no difference.) Applications for civil partnership will become possible from December 5 this year, and ceremonies can actually be held from December 21 onwards. Several of my friends have booked for the first day, and I look forward to celebrating not only their own joy but a fundamental change for the better in our social legislation.
There are some who do not share the joy, of course. Just as there were some local authorities that tried to perpetuate the worst aspects of section 28 on a local basis, so there are some Tory-controlled councils that are determined to spoil the party. Bromley – who else – is leading the way in denying people the chance to use council premises for civil partnership ceremonies. Fortunately, the private sector has no such inhibitions, but the decision does confirm the continued existence of dinosaurs and dinosaur-thinking within the Conservative party.
Labour, by contrast, must not be tempted to rest on its laurels and think that the task of securing equality has been accomplished. It hasn’t, and much still needs to be done. The first item on this list is the equality bill, promised in Labour’s election manifesto, and going through parliament now. Broadly, this is a hugely welcome bill. It is founded on the simple fundamental principle that bigotry, and the discrimination that it spawns, are wrong, no matter what form it takes; and that the protection of our citizens who are different, because of race, colour, gender, disability, age or sexual orientation, is a seamless duty that society must gladly undertake.
The bill has its flaws: the protection it seeks to provide for lesbians and gay men is still inadequate, and does not yet equate to the protection offered to other vulnerable groups. In particular, the bill offers protection against discrimination in the crucial area of the provision of goods and services to others, but not to lesbians and gay men. This was an issue that was unanimously agreed for reform at party conference; and when we debated the matter in the House of Lords just a week or two ago, there was strong feeling on the Labour benches that the government have to amend the bill to include sexual orientation in the anti-discriminatory provisions. The signs are that the government is sympathetic, but is being too cautious. It needs to be bolder, and faster, about reform.
Let’s not underestimate the importance of the legislative changes that have been made during the past eight years. They’d never have happened without a Labour government. But let’s also be clear that things still need to be done. It is still, apparently, legal for a hotel or bed and breakfast proprietor to refuse accommodation to a gay couple because they want to sleep together. It is still legal for a religious organisation to discriminate in employment policy because of prejudice. It is still un-prohibited to stir up lethal hatred of lesbians and gays. We can’t assume that everything has been achieved.
Nor can we assume, now, that legislation is the only thing that needs changing. Over the past two terms of government, the priority has been, rightly, to change the law. Over the next two terms of a Labour government, let’s add something else, more difficult, less tangible, and ultimately even more important: the need to help change the climate of thinking, the assumptions people have, the way in which we regard and treat each other in society, and the values that we bring to our public and private discourse. In these matters we have moved on immensely since those days of twenty-one years ago when I started out on this campaigning road. But let’s commit ourselves to this task in every bit as determined a fashion. It is every bit as important.