Hundreds sign petition to stop Ukip marching as part of gay pride parade

[Chippiewill]

Hundreds of people have signed a petition to ban Ukip from marching as part of this year’s LGBT pride parade in London.

Activists and would-be revellers are angry that the right-wing party has been granted an official place in the London Pride Parade 2015 despite alleged incidents of homophobia.

“Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, clearly does not support the values of acceptance that Pride promotes, and UKIP is an inherently homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, racist and misogynistic political party,” the petitioners argued.

“UKIP's inclusion in Pride has already caused public outcry and many have stated they would feel unhappy and unsafe to have a UKIP group included in Pride 2015's march, being that they are from an organisation that inherently does not support the values of acceptance and inclusion that Pride promotes.”

They cite the facts that Ukip was the only major party not to address LGBT rights in its manifesto, that its leader Nigel Farage made negative statements about people with HIV, and that the party is opposed to same-sex marriage.

Specific incidents pointed to by the 1,600+ signatories of the proposal include a Ukip councillor who blamed bad weather in 2014 on the passage of same sex marriage, an MEP who referred to homophobia as “merely a propaganda device” and an aide to Mr Farage who referred to trans women as “she males”.

In April of this year Ukip candidate Geoffrey Caton denied he was homophobic despite using the phrase "a**e bandit" to refer to gay people.

A Ukip spokesperson told the Independent that the party had been invited to attend the event and that dialogue and inclusion between different groups would help promote LGBT rights.

"The invitation to LGBT* in UKIP was offered by the organisers of Pride, and happily accepted. Those who would ban is should reflect on how equality is achieved. Not by exclusion, but dialogue and inclusion," he said.

A Pride in London spokesperson said: "Pride in London is inclusive of all LGBT+ groups, including political groups and – as with all entrants - they must sign and comply with our code of conduct.

"We provide a platform for every part of the LGBT+ community and respect the principles of free speech. We do not discriminate against people based on their political affiliation, and all political parties taking part in the Parade will be positioned together in the same section.

"However, Pride in London will continue to monitor community reaction and include the Community Advisory Board in this conversation."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hundreds-sign-petition-to-stop-ukip-marching-as-part-of-gay-pride-parade-10297163.html

Loving the irony here.

[GommeInc]

They lost me at feeling "unsafe". The only people who need to feel unsafe are the ones from UKIP. I hate it when groups say they feel unsafe yet are more aggressive than the ones they're supposedly afraid of.

Well done Pride for recognising free speech, inclusion and respect. They know true equality and fairness, not these imbeciles harping on and finding any excuse to exclude people from attending an event which is all about understanding and inclusion - even though to me it doesn't really do anything other than be a larger than normal pub crawl.

[FlyingJesus]

Why do UKIP even want to be there what seems a bit weird giving invitations to political parties of any stance tbh, recipe for drama

[GommeInc]

Why do UKIP even want to be there what seems a bit weird giving invitations to political parties of any stance tbh, recipe for drama
They seem to just appear for a bit PR. I think some Conservative MPs/Counsellors turned up to a few Pride events last year. I think Boris Johnson opened London Pride last year or the year before.

[FlyingJesus]

People turning up in an individual capacity is fair enough, just seems odd to have a bunch of actual LGBT groups parading and then "oh btw here's a lesbian who works for the Labour party" or whatever :P

[-:Undertaker:-]

The organisers have caved.

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/06/05/breaking-ukip-banned-from-londons-gay-pride-parade/


Breaking: The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has been officially banned from attending this year’s Gay Pride Parade in London, following a U-turn from event organisers.

The party’s LGBT* group, as well as the youth wing Young Independence had initially intended to send representatives to take part in the Pride march in London.

But following a campaign against the party (http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/06/04/some-gay-people-vote-ukip-get-over-it/) by political groups and full-time, left-wing LGBT activists, it appears that the organisers have caved. The latest person to come out against UKIP’s attendance is long-time LGBT campaign and presumed free-speech activist Peter Tatchell, who dictated today that it was “not appropriate” for either homosexual or straight members of UKIP to attend the march.

A statement from the event organisers reads: “For this year we have reached the decision that UKIP’s application to join the Pride in London Parade, 27th June 2015, will be turned down. “This decision has been made after careful consultation in order to protect participants and ensure the event passes off safely and in the right spirit, it has not been made on a political basis.

“We appreciate many in our community have strongly held views about UKIP, their policies and comments, but is undeniable that there are LGBT+ members of UKIP, including their MEP for Scotland, and it is important to remember that Pride in London aims to be an inclusive event. “However, of paramount concern to us is the experience of all participants at Pride, most especially the position we would be putting our volunteer stewards in.”

The MEP in question is Mr David Coburn, a gay man himself, though one who doesn’t subscribe to political correctness about the subject, or any others. The organisers have claimed that they will be ‘turning down’ UKIP’s application, though Breitbart London understands that the application had already been accepted, and that this development is an about-face by the Pride organisers, after political lobbying and a campaign against the party.

The organisers may now face a challenge from UKIP, who could argue that the move breaches a contract the organisers have to run the event. A note on their website reads: “Within this contract we pledged to create a world-class, diverse and inclusive event that provides a platform for the LGBT+ community to celebrate and campaign; and raise money to assist charities and organisations that safeguard and promote the welfare and rights of the LGBT+ community.” Excluding UKIP may fall foul of their responsibilities towards diversity and inclusivity.

UKIP has yet to put out an official statement, but one LGBT member told Breitbart London: “Once again the LGBT lobby have said it’s great to be gay, but only if you have the right kind of views and are the right kind of gay. This is a sad day, but I hope it’ll bolster LGBT* in UKIP, help us to become more radical, and to be a home for LGBT people who do not feel they belong on the left”.

Why the party even has an LGBTXYZ group is my question, although I guess here it's served a purpose of drawing attention to the intolerance of 'the tolerant'.


So it's illegal to refuse to bake a cake for a poof, but it's perfectly OK to ban one from joining a poofter march?

[Chippiewill]

That's a massive shame, honesty I can kind of see how the organisers must be thinking. If UKIP turn up then there's a good chance they'd be mobbed or attacked like Carswell was last week and it would not only pose a safety hazard but would also overshadow the event. I don't think the organisers are to blame here, just the idiots against real inclusivity.

Edit:


So it's illegal to refuse to bake a cake for a poof, but it's perfectly OK to ban one from joining a poofter march?
Frustrates me when people on the other side of the argument are so ******* dense that they don't even understand their own argument - this is probably one of the people who think it should actually be allowed to refuse to bake a cake based on sexuality (Judging from the use of 'poofter').

There are two fallacies made here, first of all, yes it's definitely (and should be) illegal to bake a cake for any person on the basis of who they are. The argument made by the other side is that they should be able to refuse to bake a cake based on the message being placed on the cake violating their beliefs.

Second of all no one has been banned from a 'poofter' march, an organisation has been banned from attending in an official capacity, every member is still welcome to attend in a non-official capacity.