Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson elected Labour leader and deputy: what they said on LGBTs
Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson have been elected the Labour leader and deputy leader respectively after a months-long campaign.
Corbyn won a landslide 59.5% to take the title in the first round, joking that he will form an “ABBA tribute band” with competitors Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall. In the deputy contest, Watson was elected in the third round, with Stella Creasy polling second place.
Both of them spoke openly about their commitment to furthering progress for the country’s LGBT+ people, so now seems as good a time as any to serve up a reminder on what they said.
Corbyn had pledged to continue pressurising for same-sex marriage progress in Northern Ireland, telling LGBT Labour: “What happened in the Republic with the same-sex marriage vote was absolutely seismic. It would not have happened without a lot of steadfast campaigning for a very long time by a lot of people, and congratulations to them.
“This is a devolved issue, but we must put pressure on the unionist parties that have resisted this change – and support those people in North Ireland who are campaigning for equality. I recently met with politicians from different parties in west Belfast and will continue to raise this issue.”
On education, he declared: “I believe sex, consent and relationships education should be compulsory in all schools, as I set out in the Youth Manifesto produced by young supporters of my campaign. I do think we need to review equality legislation in schools. It cannot be right that the places where we educate our children have leeway to discriminate.
“I was in Parliament when Section 28 went through – I campaigned against it and spoke against it in the debate. Section 28 was preventing local authorities using their public premises for anything that was deemed to be promoting homosexuality. We’ve moved on a lot since then.”
Jez, we did it. Electric atmosphere in the conference hall. We are all #TeamCorbyn. Thank you. #JezWeDid pic.twitter.com/plgLsHsX0I
— For The Many (@ForTheMany2020) September 12, 2015
Watson, meanwhile, had mused: “For some members of the LGBT community coming to terms with their sexuality and deciding on whether or not to come out can still be a lonely and lengthy struggle. They should be supported by decent mental health services if needed, tailored to their specific needs. For example It is deeply worrying that suicide rates within the transgendered community are amongst the highest among young people in the UK. That is not something that can be ignored.
“The truth is Conservative governments simply don’t regard the provision of healthcare to the LGBT community as a priority. It falls to Labour, as it so often has, to make sure they are held to account on these and other failings.”
He added: “I am genuinely interested in learning more from our LGBT members about what they feel are the most pressing issues they face and what they feel we can do as a party to ensure their voices and policy concerns are factored into how we run our party and develop our manifestos.”