Bill to equalise age of consent in Gibraltar defeated

× Close window

Reader Comments

  1. Stuart Neyton  18 Jun 2009, 8:18pm  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    I’m slightly confused as to why the opposition voted against equalising the age of consent. The opposition is made up of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (4 members) and the Gibraltar Liberal Party (3 members), which are both seemingly progressive on social issues compared to the ruling conservative Social Democrats. If, as the article seems to suggest, the opposition are indeed in favour of an equal age of consent, why vote against it? I didn’t even know Gibraltar had a higher age of consent for gay people.

    Post a reply →
  2. Robert, ex-pat Brit  19 Jun 2009, 3:49pm  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    Maybe, David Cameron, can use some influence since he claims to be a good friend of the gay community. Lets hear it from you David! Lets see some commitment from the Tory party.

    Post a reply →
  3. Simon Murphy  19 Jun 2009, 4:25pm  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    Robert – do you mean the Tory Party who are in the same grouping in the European Parliament with the government of Lithuania who is introducing their own version of ‘Section 28′?

    Post a reply →
  4. Augur Pearce  20 Jun 2009, 10:19pm  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    The Imperial Parliament can legislate for any colony, and indeed threatened to do so in relation to the Isle of Man when judicial birching appeared to be incompatible with human rights commitments and the islanders would not make the necessary change. Maybe before they leave office, the Brown government at Westminster can deal with the Gibraltarian bigots?

    Post a reply →
  5. John Smith  29 Jun 2009, 12:20am  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    Augar,

    Gibraltar is NOT a colony. Under the Gibraltar constitution (which is legally binding on the UK as well), the UK is only involved in a limited number of internal areas, and this is not one of them. Therefore it would technically be a breach of UK law for it to interfere.

    Why don’t you take your nasty hate language (‘bigots’) elsewhere.

    The vast majority of the people of Gibraltar want full equality and Gibraltar remains a very tolerant place (you get 30,000 people living in 3 square miles – and enduring a closed border for 16 years – without everyone knowing and fully accepting everyone else.

    Therefore while the law had not been touched in many many decades, things were fine in practice.

    It is a shame this opportunity to update the law didn’t happen, however it didn’t happen because of unrelated domestic party politics. It will be sorted imminently.

    Given that you don’t seem to know the first thing about the truly harmonious situation in practice on the ground, why don’t you stop calling people bigots?

    Post a reply →
  6. Gay Activist Paul Mitchell  6 May 2010, 8:19am  Report
    Thumb up 0Thumb down

    Here is the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2009 [Private Members Bill]:

    http://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/bills/bills2009/2009PMB01.pdf

    Post a reply →

Add your comment

These comments are un-moderated and do not necessarily represent the views of PinkNews.co.uk. If you believe that a comment is inappropriate or libellous please click "Report" or email us. Terms and Conditions · Privacy Policy