The different UK political parties and their stances on the LGBTQIA+ community...

Hello everyone! Tomorrow is Thursday the 7th of May and voting day here in the UK. But you might be thinking 'who do I vote?' You might even be thinking 'why should I vote?' Maybe you do not think any political party will do what you and they only care about themselves. The thing that different political parties believe in different things and some of these things might be things you do not want As someone who is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I would never align myself with a political party who wants to remove the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community or discriminate against them. The same applies to coming for women's rights as I am proud feminist too. Again, I would not want a party with power if they were racist or xenophobic. That being said, if I want people like that to not get into power then one of my best chances to avoid that is vote against that and choose the political parties that will support and believe in the things that I support and believe in. Anyway, I am here to give the lowdown on the views of each political party when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community. I will start with the parties on the left or rather those that are liberal and all about equality and progression. Then will move to centre and then the right-wing parties (the ones that want tradition and division), moving on to the far-right of the political system.

*But I just want to emphasise that I am not here to tell anyone who to vote for. It is purely one person's own decision and only they can decide who they choose to vote for. No one should make that choice for them.

1: Green - left wing, run by Zack Polanski who is member of the London assembly.

The green party has known to be supportive of everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community. They agree that conversion therapy should be banned. They also want equal rights for trans and non-binary people and for women too. Because unlike some parties making false claims, trans, non-binary people and women can all have equal rights without affecting anyone else's rights. They accept things like abortions, taxing the super rich, removing this horrific bathroom ban, same sex marriages and more. They are also support a free Palestine, which shows a lot having a Jewish gay man running the party.

This is a party that is fully supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community.

2: Labour - "left wing", run by Kier Starmer the Prime Minister and Holborn and St Pancras in London.

Historically the Labour party has been known to be left-wing and to support the LGBTQIA+ community. But not any more! Keir Starmer and his government have been trying to please the ring-wing voters, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was told she would be welcome in the far right-wing party Reform UK. If that is not a clue as to how far away they have gone from left wrong politics then I do not know.

Now some MPs in the labour are very supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community such as Nadia Whittome and Bell Ribeiro-Addy. However, the labour government does not support the LGBTQIA+ community. Take Zack Polanski, leader of the green party. He's a gay man who supports trans people. Take Wes Streeting, Labour health secretary. He's a gay man who has made it evident he does not support trans people. It is possible to be inclusive, not as far as some see it.

Keir Starmer is just as bad or worse though. When the news broke out about Brianna Ghey, a transgender teenager who had been murdered, the prime minister met with her mother, Esther Ghey. Despite once offering support, he has turned his back on her and has said things or made decisions to contradict his earlier actions.

Labour is the party that once backed and supported gay man back in the 1980s amidst the AIDs pandemic when others would not. Now they are a reckless, cannot decide between left and right party with them losing support from people on both sides. The only thing that have played their part on is pushing forward conversations around H.I.V and getting tested in a bid to lower new transmissions. They might well have introduced better rights for renters and workers but it is not enough as far as I am concerned.

This is a party that has shown some support sometimes for the LGBTQIA+ community.

3: Liberal Democrats - centre, run by Ed Davey, MP for Kingston and Surbiton.

The liberal democrats are a party that are considered between left and right-wing politics, known as being a centre-political party. Despite this, at times I believe they have acted more left-wing than the current labour government has been acting. They were the party that originally got same-sex marriage to be legalised back in 2014. It was six years until it was legalised in Northern Island. Some MPs did not agree with these decisions being made. They were after civil partnerships for mixed-sex couples too as a way acknowledging people are different and not singling out same-sex couples as though that is this all for them and just for them.

They have also done other things such as advocating for a end to conversion therapy and an end of banning LGBTQIA+ people for donating blood. Addressing bullying and discrimination against LGBTQIA+ individuals in schools was another problem. These are some of the positive things they have done to show their support. Nevertheless, despite the Liberal Democrats being against transphobia and supporting trans people, some members do not agree with this.

This is a part that mostly shown support for the LGBTQIA+.

4: Conservative - right-wing, run by Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition and MP for North West Essex.

Here is the party that once had Margaret Thatcher at the helm back in the 1980s, targeting and destroying the lives of miners and gay men. She cruelly had anti-LGTBQIA+ laws put in place. For example, LGBTQIA+ books were banned and removed. When gay men were dying from AIDs she did nothing to help and instead made things worse. We should be grateful we had someone like the late Princess Diana who held the hand of someone with AIDS which combatted stigma and misinformation surrounding people with AIDs.

Since then the Conservatives have never done anything to offer support, being against multiple times when it came to things regarding inclusivity for the LGBTQIA+ community. The recent Conservative government said they would ban conversion therapy but did not. I know politicians lie but they had been saying it for years. What's more is they wanted to have toilets as single-sex toilets aiming to exclude trans and non-binary people. This is highly problematic considering how you cannot tell if someone is transgender. Many people have been accused of being transgender and removed from toilets, even if they are not. On the other hand, some people in the U.S.A have been removed from toilets for using the toilet that aligns with their assigned sex at birth as they have been instructed to. This is because there is no one way to look like.

Having pointed this out, same-sex marriage was an idea that former Conservative prime minister David Cameron was all for backing. The joint coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats meant it was passed because most of the Conservative MPs at the time voted against it. This does not mean that I like David Cameron though...

This is a party that has mostly been against the LGBTQIA+ community.

5: Reform UK - far-right, led by Nigel Farage, MP for Clacton maybe?

I state that Nigel Farage is maybe the MP for Clacton because he is never in his constituency, held no political surgeries and lied he was not allowed on BBC's Question Time when the show came to Clacton. He was proven a liar when another MP stated that an MP was allowed because they went on when the show was in their constituency. Bare in mind this is a man who actively spread lies namely with 'X' owner (formerly Twitter) Elon Musk over the terrible incident that happened in Southport. This is what lead to the far-right rioting that happened across the country. I know several people that were scared because of this. How does this help anyone? Shame on all the people who decided to spread lies about the ethnicity and religion of an attacker. Then again, the media have failed to accurately report the recent attacking which saw a Muslim person and two Jewish people attacked. The media only seems to mention the two Jewish people. That says enough as far as I am concerned.

Farage also lied when he pretended not to know that James McMurdock was jailed after he assaulted his partner. Farage let McMurdock became a Reform MP. The party has never supported women as I mentioned in a post last month on the 17th. He spoke out that he disagreed with legalising same-sex marriage. No one in the party has ever shown support for LGBTQIA+. Former Conservative Ann Widdicombe who is their spokesperson for immigration and justice (they do not know what this is) has been strongly against the community for example. Then there was Reform UK councillor Mandy Clare who was charged with assault after causing a scene at a pride in which she pushed a pregnant woman. How disgusting!

Speaking of pride, Reform UK in Durham scrapped funding for two events due to be a huge boost to the local economy. One of these events was Durham Pride and the other was light festival they have. In Nottingham, children's services lost funding because thousands of pounds went to flags of the country. Then across the country in the councils they own, they increase council tax to the maximum even asking for special permission to increase it even more in Worcestershire. For Reform UK it is a shambles everywhere.

This is a party that majorly does not support the LGBTQIA+ community.

That is the main political parties in the country that you may or may not have heard of, with their stances on the LGBTQIA+ community. Now remember, this is not in any way me telling you who to vote for. Just some information I decided to publish what with the local elections happening tomorrow. You can vote for ever you want but just make sure it is your own decision and no one is making you vote for someone else.

Until next time,

Thomas.