The travel ban on people with HIV entering the United States has been ended by new US legislation. Following pressure from MEPs and a US Senate vote, the end to the ban has been signed into law by President Bush.
The latest DELGA newsletter is out in time for Bournemouth party conference, with news from our parliamentary parties and campaigns, a roundup of what members and supporters can look forward to at conference, news of the Out To Win project and more.
Prominent Liberal Democrats Brian Paddick and Alex Carlile have been shortlisted for this year's Stonewall Awards.
DELGA has welcomed a call today by Government Equalities Office director general Jonathan Rees for action in all public bodies before the introduction of the proposed Equality Bill. DELGA Chair Jen Yockney said, "the public sector is providing services and employment funded by everyone - and that includes lesbian, gay, bi and trans (LGBT) taxpayers' money. As such it is only right that public sector organisations should work to make sure not simply freedom from direct and deliberate discrimination against LGBT people, but to remove barriers that are less obvious such as ways of working that have evolved under an assumption of heterosexual cisgender life experience."
As the Catholic fundamentalist prime minister of Poland Kazimierz Macinkiewicz visited the UK, Liberal Democrat European Justice spokeswoman and London MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford pressed the European Commission to take firm action against the increasingly homophobic attitudes being fostered in Poland under the new right-wing government.
"Simply issuing schools with guidance on tackling homophobic bullying is not enough", said DELGA chair Jen Yockney today on hearing a government claim to have acted to tackle all kinds of bulling in schools.