The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they’ve been told
They get their OBE’s.

…

Bought and Sold
from “Too Black, Too Strong”
by Benjamin Zephaniah
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/content/237.php

Only yesterday the Evening Standard reported that Stonewall’s sister quango The Equality and Human Rights Commission had awarded it £148,000. Stonewall well and truly has its snout in the taxpayer trough. Oink!

Some hope, since marriage is specifically excluded from the powers of all European bodies. Instead it is left to the individual national governments to decide on moral grounds. The only open avenue there is on the grounds of religious discrimination, since all legal barriers to sexual minorities were or are promoted by certain religions on the grounds of morality, and discriminating on religious grounds is a high level infringement of human rights. But no one shows any sign of being prepared to open that can of worms.

LOL, Ben Zeroskill and Nick Pratridge – the Quango Queens!!

It is quite likely he already has. They always make a discreet request before publicly announcing offers, so they don’t get politically beaten about the head by the gesture by ungrateful, republican tossers.

Both groups have the ear of government but totally ignore the people on whose behalf they claim to speak.

Congratulations to Alan Cumming on his OBE by the way. He deserves it.

This is the exact same question that people are currently asking of The Terrence Higgins Trust in light of years of failed and ineffective HIV prevention policy that has served to enrich themselves and the pharma lobby. Gordon Brown even said himself in his World Aids Day message the other day that he is committed to gay men being tested with not a word of getting the HIV rate down. It’s like they have building up the HIV rates with campaigns that could only have encouraged the spread of the disease in order to reach this point where they are pushing testing to the hilt. Why? Yesterday Pink News reported that HIV rates in the UK have increased over 70% since 2001. In case anyone needs reminding that was the year that charities like the THT started taking their orders directly from the Government and have been following their guidelines ever since. Oh yes, and THT’s Chief Exec. received his gong earlier this year. There is something truly rotten in these organisations that jump through Government hoops while treating the communities they are supposed to serve with such utter contempt. Some may be dreading the prospect of a new Tory Government soon, but at least it gives some hope that the revolving doors between the likes of Stonewall/THT and central Government will stop rotating at 80mph…

This comment made me laugh.

It’s as if the Campaign for Homosexual Equality; OUTrage!; Gay Switchboard; LGB Societies up and down the country and the millions of LGB people who have come out to their friends, families, colleagues etc didn’t exist.

Who is Stonewall meant to represent? What is their mandate?

How do they engage with the communities they are claiming to represent to decide on policy.

How many LGB people did they consult before they decided we don’t deserve or need marriage equality?

Civil partnerships are not going to be taken away from us.

Why is Stonewall refusing to demand marriage equality? Are they scared of upsetting their political masters. Because they are NOT representing the LGB population’s interests by pretending that we are happy with CP’s.

If Stonewall wants the support of the LGB population then they’d better start representing the LGB population. And they are not doing that at the moment. Whether or not Stonewall members support legal equality for LGB people or not is largely irrelevant.

If they are going to position themselves as the voice of the LGB population (which they do!), then they should be representing the LGB population.

Who decided that it was acceptable for Stonewall to agree that access to civil marriage for gay people was unacceptable. It wasn’t me, or anyone I know.

What exactly is Stonewall’s mandate? And on whose specific behalf are they speaking?

Because they are not speaking for me.

Two substantive points:

1. It’s not an X-factor popularity contest between Peter Tatchell and Ben Summerskill. There’s no one in Britan more personally courageous than Tatchell, who has contributed more than any other single person to gay rights and to broader human rights. I’m sure that Ben would be the first to say that. But Peter alone, and Peter’s approach alone, would not have achieved the advances that we have achieved, and I’m sure Peter would be the first to say that. The approaches are complementary.

2. Stonewall seems to get up some people’s noses for being too…too what? too establishment-orientated, too moderate, too something, maybe too successful. I don’t agree with Stonewall on every stance, and some of its causes affect me personally more than others. But its approach, underpinned with good research, shows the breadth of our interaction at every level of society and culture. Look at its work relating to education, especially about bullying; employment and workplace culture; relationship to “faith” organistations; provision of health services, to name but a few.

Stonewall’s biggest achievement is helping to put us in the mainstream; our rights are basically established and unchallenged, except on the extremes. For the first time ever, we can actually look at the next election and make our decisions on the same basis as “ordinary” citizens, not only on what’s good for us as gay people. And we’re not an issue in the election either.

Yes, I want marriage rather than civil partnership. But I’d rather have – for the time being – UK civil partnership with effective (no, not perfect) legal equality than have a Massachusetts or Iowa marriage that will NEVER bring equality at the US federal level.

I suspect our full marriage equality will come sooner than we think, through Europe, but that’s another story…

Not necessarily as it would increase his influence in the field of human rights.

Indeed but Peter Tatchell is a republican I believe. He would refuse an OBE if he was offered it.

Likewise why are Stonewall wasting their time campaigning to force churches to perform civil partnerships instead of campaigning for equal access to civil marriage.

Summerskill does not deserve that award. He deserves a serious wake-up call which tells him his organisation is a relic of the 20th century and that a gay group whose sole purpose is to rubberstamp government policy regarding LGB people, cannot and should not pretend to represent the LGB population (not to mention the Trans population who Stonewall refuse to represent).