Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dems' spokesperson on Equality, attended a hustings organised by Stonewall and Village Drinks on behalf of the party. Matters discussed included Lynne's amendments to the Equality Act to support all trans people, which were dropped by the Government, and the blood donation ban.
The final Liberal Democrat conference before the General Election backed a call for better training and guidelines for teachers and youth workers to help tackle homophobic bullying today.
This month's Gay Times features an interview with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg. In the interview, Nick discusses the Liberal Democrats' unparalleled record on LGBT equality. He talks about asylum seekers fleeing persecution over their sexuality, and the balance to be struck between free speech and preventing incitement to hatred. He says that his priorities for the gay community include making sure all schools have a homophobic bullying policy in place, reviewing the blood donation ban on gay and bisexual men, and equality of marriage for same-gender couples.
Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has written an open letter to the readers of PinkPaper.com. In it, he calls for more cross-party consensus on LGBT equality, and a commitment from all parties to tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools. He also highlight's the party's Out To Win network, which supports LGBT Lib Dem candidates at all levels of election.
DELGA, the Liberal Democrat group for LGBT equality, has opened up a web shop to help Lib Dem campaigners. The shop stocks materials which promote the party's unparalleled record of action on equality. This includes our new postcard design for the General Election, with the slogan "We've Always Been There For You... And We Always Will", along with colourful trifold leaflets and stickers for Pride festivals.
Official figures show that same-sex couples have registered 3,648 civil partnerships in England and Wales in the space of two months, since same-sex partnerships became legally recognised in December 2005.