Commenting on the Government's announcement that there will be no exemption from anti-discrimination laws for Catholic adoption agencies, Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said: "I believe there is no place for discrimination in a liberal society. The Prime Minister's conclusion regarding the Sexual Orientation Regulation is to be welcomed. Any exemption would have undermined this principle."
DELGA is backing a petition calling on the Prime Minister to prohibit discrimination in the provision of goods, services and facilities, including health care,on the grounds of transsexual or transgender status.
DELGA has welcomed the start of the UK's third lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history month. DELGA Chair Jen Yockney commented, "Even seventeen years ago when I was first coming out, an idea like this would have been an impossible dream. Lesbian and gay history was invisible and unspoken, let alone that of bi and trans communities and people. LGBT History Month is a brilliant development to help both LGBT people and the wider community understand and remember the history of LGBT people who have influenced our culture. It also gives us a chance to share the more recent history of how we have made it through the last hundred or so years as the high tide of intolerance has slowly receded."
For the next election the Liberal Democrats will produce a web-based interactive manifesto, which will use audio-visual communications as its centrepiece rather than the written word. To work towards that, a discussion site for party members has been launched allowing party members - including members of DELGA - to influence the tone and direction of the final manifesto. Commenting, Steve Webb said:"This site is all about giving party members a real say in our manifesto for the next General Election. Unlike the other parties, we want a genuine conversation, and the manifesto we produce will be better as a result.
The government's intended start-date for the new ID card system is less than seven weeks away, on 26th March, according to information leaked to campaign group no2id. If you want a passport without being extensively interviewed and added to the government's ID database, you need to act now.
A Tory councillor from Lambeth has dismissed claims he made homophobic comments about "deviant behaviour" in public toilets.