Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

Demo against antigay Kent County Cl-press preview

Queen of Kent | 07.11.2004 14:52 | Social Struggles | World


The following has appeared in Kent freepaper Kent on Sunday today (Nov 7th) in advance of
the demonstration against Kent County Council (Leader Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart) which has retained a part of the old antigay Section 28 in it's policies.
Kent also has some of the most Homophobic MP's in the country. Anne Widdecombe,David Brazier,Roger Gale and indeed Micheal Howard (despite recent comments).


DEMO : MAIDSTONE- KENT. From 1pm COUNTY HALL. (situated right next to Maidstone East
rail station- trains from London Victoria mainly-some London Bridge). Or road- M20.
Theme :Big Gay Out- End Homophobia in Kent. Dress. Shool uniform/Angels.

See:  http://www.queeryouth.org.uk





'Gays activists to hold County hall protest'. by Jamie McGinnes.

Gay campaigners have called on Kent councillors to "fly the rainbow flag from County hall".

They are planning to demonstrate against Tory-controlled Kent County Council's refusal to drop the contraversial Section 28 in schools.

Protestors from groups including the Kent Queer Youth Alliance and OutRage! will gather outside the council's headquarters.

They say KCC's decision to continue enforcing the legislation,which was repealed nationally last year,was "homophobic",and an "abuse of human rights".

Ray D...,from Folkestone,has organised a petition calling on KCC to repeal Section 28 and give greater support to homosexuals.

He said : "We want themto change their entire attitude,starting with KCC,but also the homophobic MP's-mostly Tory- in Kent. There's a lack of sensitivity and understanding towards gay people in Kent. Why else would we reatin an element of Section 28,which has been repealed nationally?" "It sends a message that it's ok to be homophobic despite what they're saying up-front". Mr D... said that the recent homophobic murder in London of gay barman David Morley showed much more needed to be done to address the issue nationally,as well as in Kent.

"Two gay men were murdered in Kent only a couple of years ago.People are still attacked all the time.Three years agoo I was gay bashed myself quite severely."

Under the Local Government Act 1988,Section 28 prohibited local authorities from promoting gay relationships in schools,before being repealed last year. KCC is the only authority in the whole country to refuse to abandon it in the county's 600 schools.

While calling on KCC to repeal Section 28,the petitition being presented by protestors urges councillors to better support gay events and services in Kent.

Mr D... said "KCC should be doing everything it can to establish gay venues and a gay Pride event.They should fly the rainbow flag from County hall."

Saturday's protest starts at 1pm. Around 50 people turned out to a similar protest on the same date last year.

Kent Green Party is supporting the demo.Campaigns officer Dr Hazel Dawe said gay people were a normal part of society and should be treated as such. She added:"This needs to be recognised in our education system.The existing policy is open to accusations of encouraging homophobic bullying and stigmatising of gay issues in the classroom. As well as effectively promoting crime,the existing policy is an abuse of human rights."

KCC's leader,Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart has alwayd dismissed claims that the authority discriminates against homosexuals.In an article for Kent on Sunday in April,he said gay people were an "important and valued part of our society." Sir sandy backed the Civil Partnerships bill to give gay couples more rights in the eyes of the law. But he said there was a need for the debate to move on and for greater support to be given to "disenfranchised communities",such as children in care and the unemployed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Queen of Kent

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech