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.
The latest DELGA newsletter has just been published and is being mailed to our members in time for the Federal Conference in Liverpool. It leads with the PinkNews poll which shows the LGBT vote in London is strongly behind Brian Paddick for London Mayor, running neck-and-neck with Ken Livingstone while Boris and the fringe candidates are clearly out of the race for the pink vote.
DELGA's colourful and busy stall at the Liberal Democrat Federal Spring conference has been a great success with many new and renewed memberships taken, lots of positive feedback from the wider party about our work in recent months and plenty of interest in current issues of lesbian, gay, bi and trans equality.
DELGA are disappointed to learn that Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian who fears he will be executed if he is deported back to his home country, has had his claim for asylum in the Netherlands overturned. Mehdi fears for his safety if he is returned to Iran, where he says his boyfriend named him as a partner before being executed.
Liberal Democrat European justice and human rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford MEP has spoken up again about Mehdi Kazemi, who unsuccessfully applied for asylum in the United Kingdom, following the execution of his partner by Iranian authorities. He fled to the Netherlands, but Dutch authorities say under EU rules he must be returned to the UK. She said, "Almost a decade ago, EU leaders gave a pledge that they would have a common asylum system which fully respected the UN Refugee Convention 'thus ensuring that nobody is sent back to persecution'. They have broken every one of those promises.