Green Party

In May's OutNorthWest magazine, Peter Tatchell calls for a big pink vote for the Greens' Peter Cranie against anti-gay Nick Griffin. 

Peter Tatchell has been a leading human rights campaigner for decades and was formerly a Labour activist. He joined the Green Party in 2004, and is now the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. 

In the article, he says:

"The battle for the last seat in the North-West will be between anti-gay Nick Griffin and pro-gay Peter Cranie, the Green Party candidate.

"A big vote for the Greens is the surest way to stop the BNP winning the seat. But if you don't want to vote Green, then voting for any party other than the BNP will help reduce Griffin's chance of being elected. If the BNP gets a low share of the vote, the Greens are likely to win the last seat and the BNP will walk away empty handed.

"The BNP refuses to allow non-white people to be members and wants to pressure black people to leave the UK. As well as supporting a policy of de facto "ethnic cleansing," the BNP has fought previous general elections on a pledge to outlaw homosexuality.

"It has described Aids as "nature taking revenge" on gay men. It opposed the repeal of Section 28 and the equalisation of the age of consent. BNP leader Nick Griffin has denounced homosexuality as a "behavioural deviancy" and attacked gay people for "flaunting their perversion." He also ridiculed homosexuals as "repulsive."

"A more true reflection of the BNP's real agenda have been some its website postings. These have previously claimed such nonsense as: "Sexually-transmitted diseases are no joke. Thanks to them, the average life-expectancy of a gay man is now 40, compared to 71 for all men."  Suggesting that the "gay rights lobby target school children," the BNP has condemned and ridiculed LGBT History Month and has warned that it might reintroduce Section 28.

"Soon after the neo-Nazi bombing of a gay bar in Soho, London, in 1999, which killed three people and maimed dozens more, BNP leader Nick Griffin seemed to excuse and endorse the homophobic hatred that inspired the terrorist atrocity. He attacked lesbian and gay people for "flaunting their perversion" and said this showed why "so many ordinary people find these creatures so repulsive".

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters - and their straight friends - should quiz all the Euro-candidates on gay rights, and on other issues like the economy, and then vote for those candidates with the most progressive and homo-friendly policies. It is important that we elect more pro-gay politicians, to help us secure stronger policies to tackle homophobic bullying and hate crimes.

"With one-in-ten voters being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, the queer vote could influence the election result in the North-West. Our votes could help stop Nasty Nick and the BNP being elected."

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