Well-known British activist Peter Tatchell says he was scratched from a list of invitees to a gay event at Downing Street at Prime Minister Gordon Brown's request.
Said Tatchell "I have been campaigning for LGBT human rights for 40 years. I was one
of the group of people who helped organise Britain's first gay pride
parade in 1972. An insider tipped me off that my name had been removed from the invite
list, at Gordon Brown's personal request. He was apparently still angry
that I had heckled him over his government's erosion of civil
liberties, when he opened the Taking Liberties exhibition at the
British Library late last year…He [Brown] claims to support gay equality but his government actually endorses some aspects of homophobic discrimination. It supports the ban on same-sex marriage. Civil partnerships are not
equality. They are a form of sexual apartheid, with different laws for
gay and straight couples. I don't do my human rights work to win awards, honours or invites. It doesn't matter to me that I haven't been invited. What angers me is the principle – the way the Prime Minister invites
and fetes mostly tame pro-Labour loyalists in the LGBT community. It is
a manipulative tactic by an insecure government that knows its record
on LGBT human rights is not as glorious as it claims."
Downing Street denies the claim: "It's not a reception, it's a very small meeting. The prime minister
and Sarah Brown will meet organisers of Pride and others who have
contributed to the event. You could fill number 10 with people who have
been involved in gay rights."
