Does UKIP support Gay Relationships?
This picture was posted on Twitter after UKIP’s public meeting in Gateshead, and was also featured on Buzzfeed.
It features Teesside’s local UKIP members, David Cottrell and Michael Johnson with a picture claiming “UKIP Supports Gay Relationships”. However the reality is UKIP support for Gay Relationships is very poor.
Voting Record
Research by the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights shows that:
- UKIP voted against EU-wide recognition of same-sex marriages.
- UKIP failed to condemn homophobic legislation in Russia.
- UKIP MEPs did not support the call by MEPs for the protection of freedom of expression for LGBT people in Lithuania.
- The introduction of an EU LGBT Roadmap to tackle discrimination was not supported by UKIP MEPs.
David McNally, the only UKIP representative in Northern Ireland’s Parliament voted against Gay Marriage and stated Gay marriage cannot exist in a ‘truly free society’.
No Support for Gay Marriage
“I do not support same sex marriages all the while we’re under the auspices of the European court of human rights.” — Nigel Farage [source]
Farage claims it was likely the European Union would force churches to hold gay marriage ceremonies against their will. This is despite the fact the Equality Act 2010 to was amended to reflect that no discrimination claims can be brought against religious organisations or individual ministers for refusing to marry a same-sex couple or allowing their premises to be used for this purpose.
This is also a reversal of an statement issued to Pink News, thought to have been cleared with Farage, saying the party was reviewing its opposition to gay marriage. UKIP said the statement had been issued in error.
It’s not just the party leadership that don’t support gay marriage,
“If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings Are we to authorise incest?” — Roger Helmer UKIP MEP [Source]
Olly Neville, the former UKIP Youth Chairman, was also sacked for supporting same-sex marriage.
Homophobic European Allies.
UKIP is a member of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group, which is a right-wing Eurosceptic political group in the European Parliament.
This group includes four members of the far-right, anti-gay United Poland party and nine members of the Northern League, the rightwing Italian party.
United Poland left the European Conservatives and Reformists group — in which Tory MEPs sit — in protest at the Tories’ gay equality agenda in 2011. United Poland MEPs have also strongly backed Radio Maryja, which broadcasts antisemitic and homophobic material. Last year Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Polish priest and founder of Radio Maryja greeted the arrival of the first gay Polish MP with the words, “the sodomites are coming; it is a really grave matter”. [Source]
The Northern League also has members with strong homophobic views. League MP Massimo Polledri recently declared that “homosexuals have to go to the psychologist to feel better”, adding that having a gay son “would be like my daughter telling me she wanted to be a nun or to marry a Moroccan”. The League was one of three parties which last month blocked a bill in the Italian parliament that would have made incitement to hatred of homosexuals an offence. [Source]
Former UKIP MEP Nikki Sinclaire, who came out as a lesbian, won a sexual discrimination case against UKIP after refusing to sit with its homophobic allies in the European parliament.
Gay Floods
A story that made headlines all around the world was the UKIP councillor who blames storms and floods on gay marriage. David Silvester said the prime minister had acted “arrogantly against the Gospel”.
The scriptures make it abundantly clear that a Christian nation that abandons its faith and acts contrary to the Gospel (and in naked breach of a coronation oath) will be beset by natural disasters such as storms, disease, pestilence and war. — David Silvester’s letter to the Henley Standard
It’s worth noting that a UKIP spokesman said Mr Silvester was “entitled to express independent thought despite whether or not other people may deem it standard or correct”. He was only suspended him from the party when he refused to stop giving interviews to the media. [Source]
Homophobia from Members and Supporters
Please note all these comments were all made this year. If I looked back any further for more, I would be researching this for a very long time indeed.
‘It’s their business. Why should they be forced to serve or sell to anyone?’ — UKIP Concillor Donna Edmunds on serving Gays. [source]
It’s seems the price of liberty is homophobia, misogyny and racism.
GCC actually stands for the Glasgow Celtic Council for gays Catholics Communists — Johathan Stanley, UKIP Scotland head of policy. [source]
Mr Silvester also claimed in that more children have been “murdered” as a result of abortion laws than the number of Jews killed in by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
“Well done the Russians” on Russian banning Gay Pride March — UKIP candidate John Sullivan [source]
John Sullivan also stated Physical exercise “released tension and thus avoided homosexuality [source]
“If you couldn’t look after your child and you had to put them up for adoption would you honestly want your child to be adopted by a gay couple? Would you seriously want that or a heterosexual family? Which would be more healthy for the child? A caring loving home is a heterosexual or single family. I don’t believe (a gay couple) is healthy for a child.” — Winston McKenzie UKIP’S candidate for the Croydon North by-election [Source]
Winston McKenzie also retweeted an article written by a National Front supporter who claimed there was “no such thing as homophobia”. [source]
I suppose British society has become far more complex and harder to immediately understand since it became socially acceptable to be openly homosexual. I have no shame or embarrassment in admitting I’m baffled at times, in terms of my personal understanding, but I accept people’s right to be different and I welcome diversity… I find female homosexuality more strange, personally, if anything — UKIP Councillor Sam Fletcher [source]
It seems Sam Fletcher is quite the over-sharer on Facebook.
“The evidence is quite clear that the percentage of homosexuals who molest children is very high and cannot be dismissed.” — UKIP member Jan Zolyniak [Source]
“Homosexuals are completely dependent on heterosexuals to create them. Curiously they never express any gratitude for this, while complaining constantly of persecution.” — senior UKIP member Dr Julia Gasper [Source]
“As for the links between homosexuality and paedophilia, there is so much evidence that even a full-length book could hardly do justice to the subject.” — senior UKIP member Dr Julia Gasper [Source]
“What irritates me is they way they and their leftie, neo-Commie followers seem to want to force the rest of us to consider them as normal.” — UKIP member Douglas Denny [Source]
“I just wish they would keep their homosexual nature and practices to themselves and stop trying to ram it down my throat telling me they are ‘normal’ when they are not.” — UKIP member Douglas Denny [Source]
These were all posted on the official UKIP members forum. A report by the Mirror suggested that UKIP leaders knew about the comments, saying that UKIP General Secretary Jonathan Arnott banned a discussion on the site on gay issues, and that he wrote of his fears that someone “is going to screenshoot comments and send them to a newspaper”.
No Support for Gay Relationships.
It seems pretty clear that UKIP do not support Gay relationship, they instead offer Homophobia.
