Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London has welcomed a PinkNews.co.uk poll that shows strong support amongst gay voters. On first preferences Mr Livingstone won 37.66%, Mr Paddick 36.71%, with the Tory and Green nominees trailing.
London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has written to the Home Secretary to request her to urgently review the case of Medhi Kazemi, an gay Iranian citizen who faces possible execution by stoning if he returns to Iran.
At the party's Spring conference in Llandudno, Welsh Lib Dem youth wing MIDR Cymru is calling for an end to homophobic prejudice when it comes to a major branch of the health service. The National Blood Service currently bars some men from saving lives - based entirely on their sexual orientation.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats Spring Conference this weekend called for an end on the blood donation ban which prevents gay and bisexual men, and female partners of bisexual men, from donating blood. DELGA Chair Jen Yockney welcomed the news saying, "the ban dates to the early days of the HIV/AIDS virus when transmission routes were less well understood and AIDS was still seen as a 'gay disease'. With the balance between homosexual and heterosexual infections now very different, and wider understanding about safe and safer sex, the current policy is long overdue reform."
On March 3rd, 1988 the Liberal Democrats was formally launched following the merger negotiations between the Liberal Party and the SDP. Today the party is twenty years old - with a proud record on lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality from the very start.
Writing for today's Independent, Lib Dem party president Simon Hughes MP condemns the UK immigration policy of sending bisexual, lesbian and gay asylum seekers back to Iran.