Comments on: Bill to equalise age of consent in Gibraltar defeated

By: John Smith

John Smith — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:20:13 +0000

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?

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By: Augur Pearce

Augur Pearce — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 21:19:19 +0000

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?

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By: Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:25:45 +0000

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′?

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By: Robert, ex-pat Brit

Robert, ex-pat Brit — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:49:04 +0000

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.

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By: Stuart Neyton

Stuart Neyton — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:18:41 +0000

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.

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