London’s New Mayor: Hero to Gay Conservatives?
Welcome Andrew Sullivan Readers!
One of the reasons I am such a fan of Rudy Giuliani is that he was a true conservative on the issues which mattered most to me, cutting spending and protecting citizens as Mayor and advocating a tough stand against terrorism as a presidential candidate. While conservative on this issues, he was liberal on social issues, having many gay friends and signing, in 1994, the Big Apple’s then-landmark domestic partnership program into law.
It seems that the new Tory Mayor of London has a lot in common with the former Republican Mayor of New York. Via the Washington Blade’s blogwatch, we learn that Boris Johnson has appointed Richard Barnes, an openly gay man “as one of his deputy mayors.” And Barnes isn’t the only gay person this Tory has tapped:
Another gay Tory Assembly Member, Brian Coleman, has been appointed Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.
Sir Simon Milton, leader of Westminster Council, becomes a Senior Adviser on Planning. Knighted in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List, he publicly declared his sexuality and married his long-term partner Councillor Robert Davis at The Ritz hotel last year.
The New Mayor even plans to attend London’s Pride celebration later this year.
It looks like gay conservatives may have a new hero across the pond, a principled conservative who reaches out to and recognizes the accomplishments of men and women like us. Seems that we have more to celebrate than “Red Ken” being voted out.
Kudos, Boris!
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Yup. He’ll let us work for him: just don’t expect him to value our relationships or recognize them. How socially liberal of him.
“In Friends, Voters, Countrymen (2001), Johnson wrote that ‘if gay marriage was OK - and I was uncertain on the issue - then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.’” Cite
“Johnson has previously referred to gay marriage as “a ludicrous parody of the real thing.” Cite
Kudos!
Comment by torrentprime — May 8, 2008 @ 4:44 pm - May 8, 2008
Torrent, you’ll have to do better than that. It is entirely possible, the current debate notwithstanding, to be pro-gay and anti-gay marriage. There was a great article to this effect in the Hartford Courant (alas no longer available without a fee) at the time of the enactment of the Nutmeg State’s landmark civil unions legislation.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 8, 2008 @ 5:15 pm - May 8, 2008
And comparing gay marriage to three-men-and-a-dog? Where does that fall on your scale of pro- to anti- gay?
And opposing gay marriage in your theoretical “pro-gay and anti-gay marriage” position also includes calling gay marriage a “ludicrous parody”? of the “real” thing? Still in the pro-gay camp, by your lights?
Comment by torrentprime — May 8, 2008 @ 6:41 pm - May 8, 2008
Maybe you’d better ask the gay people who accepted positions in his government. It seems they see these statements merely as over-the-top rhetoric. Excessive, I agree, but he has shown confidence in gay people by giving them positions of power and influence.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 8, 2008 @ 7:52 pm - May 8, 2008
#3
Bullshit, TP! If he were a liberal who said that, the gay victims would be falling all over themselves to give him cash.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 8, 2008 @ 8:30 pm - May 8, 2008
BTW, didn’t I read somewhere that PM Kevin Rudd of the glorious Labour party opposes gay marriage?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 8, 2008 @ 8:32 pm - May 8, 2008
so what if he opposes Gay Marriage… many gay men oppose Gay Marriage… at least those over 40…
heck… i oppose marriage altogether… governments should be in the business of conferring or denying marital rights…
Comment by jon and tom — May 8, 2008 @ 9:36 pm - May 8, 2008
At least Mr. Johnson has conservative principles. I worry that if David Cameron does become prime minister in the next election. Mr. Cameron is somewhere between Sen. “F— You” McCain and Gov. Arnold. And, as a conservative that is not a place I would want to be!
Comment by Mark J. Goluskin — May 8, 2008 @ 11:58 pm - May 8, 2008
But but but - I thought Conservatives hated gay people???? What? They don’t? You mean liberals stereotype them? That can’t be true - liberals don’t judge. Ohwwwaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!
Comment by LesbianNeoCon — May 9, 2008 @ 7:53 am - May 9, 2008
Sorry to say, but I think this article is a bit ill-informed.
Unlike the congenitally homophobic Republican Party, being gay, or being gay and being appointed to a political post is no big deal in the UK. There always have been plenty of openly gay Conservative and other Assembly Members on London’s Assembly. Indeed, the Liberal Democrats have now run two different gay Mayoral candidates; the Greens have run one; one of the four Tory Mayoral primary candidates was openly gay (now an Assembly member).
In the Westminster parliament just down the river from City Hall, two openly gay Tories serve in the party’s Shadow Cabinet. Labour and the Liberal Democrats also have openly gay Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members and many openly gay Members of Parliament.
Despite these progressive attitudes, Johnson has consistently been behind the times compared to his party and city. Prior to his election, he wrote:
“if gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men; or indeed three men and a dog.’”
“Labour’s appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of
homosexuality in schools, and all the rest of it.’”
“the essence of that Tory case is unchanged… it
is more sensitive to spare parents’ anxieties, than to allow Leftwing local authorities to waste taxpayers’ money on idiotic and irrelevant homosexual instruction.’”
His bigoted and ignorant comments about lesbians and gays and civil unions (legal since 2004 in the UK, a decision encouraged by Mayor Livingstone’s decision to set up a civil partnership register in London in 2001) as well as Boris Johnson’s support in print for the notorious Section 28, by which the UK government decided in 1986 to forbid teachers from, in the language of the legislation “promoting homosexuality,” (the Blair government repealed this in 2003) are a disgrace to his party and fall far short of the highly-publicised opposition to this measure by the Conservative Party’s previous Mayoral candidate, Steve Norris (it was Conservative Party policy to support Section 28 from 1986 until the Labour government repealed the measure in 2003).
You can see the new Mayor discuss his position on this in front of Stonewall, the UK’s principal organisation for gay and lesbian equality, a few days before the end of May 1st’s mayoral election on this YouTube clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3PJm1n90og&feature=related
Comment by londoner — May 9, 2008 @ 11:36 am - May 9, 2008
With all of this brouhaha over what Boris might have thought or said about gays and marriage, one point is conveniently overlooked - Red Ken did not do as much for the gay community as Boris did in terms of his appointments and recognitions of key gays in his government.
If someone can show proof of Red Ken’s committment to gays and lesbians, I’d love to see it.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — May 9, 2008 @ 12:57 pm - May 9, 2008
Londoner, thanks for all those links. Glad I had put a question mark on the title of the post.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — May 9, 2008 @ 3:53 pm - May 9, 2008
The jury’s still out on Boris, but this has to be seen as positive. As for Australia’s Kevin Rudd, he is very much pro-gay. That he happens to oppose marriage, as opposed to unions doesn’t prove otherwise.
Comment by David, UK — May 9, 2008 @ 5:31 pm - May 9, 2008
The new deputy major’s name is Richard Barnes, not Tony. Maybe it was “Tory” you misread? : http://www.gaypolitics.com/?p=461
[Thanks for catching that. Just checked you’re right. I misread Tory as Tony. Fixed. –Dan]
As David says, the jury is still very much out on Boris - on LGBT issues and otherwise. He so often contradicts himself and backpedals in such vague terms that it’s impossible to know what he really believes in, other than throwing the word “liberty” around a lot. Let’s just hope London is still standing when he’s done with it.
Comment by Thom — May 9, 2008 @ 7:05 pm - May 9, 2008
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Pingback by Tories — May 9, 2008 @ 8:28 pm - May 9, 2008
#14 - “Let’s just hope London is still standing when he’s done with it.”
Gee, Thom, I was saying the same thing when Red Ken was in office. But somehow I doubt that Boris would be as much as a firebrand panderer as his predecessor.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — May 9, 2008 @ 11:31 pm - May 9, 2008
Here in the U.S. at least, gay marriage is the measure which determines whether a politician is homophobic or not. If a Republican opposes gay marriage, but supports civil unions, they’re a racist, sexist, bigot homophobe. They also want to ship us off to Super-Duper, double secret gay death camps in Wyoming or Colorado or wherever the hell it is today.
On the flip-side, a liberal politician can do no wrong. If they oppose gay marriage, why they’re the best thing to happen to gays since the orgasm. Liberal gay victims spooge themselves throwing them cash and votes and loudly proclaim that they’re the ones who care more about gays. Nevermind that liberals in office have passed the most anti-gay legislation.
The simple fact that liberal candidates pander to gays erases their obvious lies, bigotry, hate and homophobia. That, and the repeating the same lies that Republicans are the real homophobes.
I can guarandamn-tee you that Dr. Paul J. Goebbles would be proud of todays “democrat” party.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 10, 2008 @ 1:44 am - May 10, 2008
I preferred conservatives when they were level-headed. They were a bit dull, perhaps, but that was certainly better than today’s rah-rah tribalism that so obviously clouds perception and inhibits reasoning.
Comment by BobN — May 10, 2008 @ 2:17 am - May 10, 2008
[…] objected to my suggestion that London’s new Tory Mayor Boris Johnson might be a hero to gay […]
Pingback by GayPatriot » Of Marriage & Sexual Difference — May 10, 2008 @ 5:15 pm - May 10, 2008
You mean they won’t grab their ankles for liberals.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — May 11, 2008 @ 2:06 am - May 11, 2008
The Dog-Gay Marriage point is a valid one. Why should I be allowed to marry a man but my neighbor not be allowed to marry his dog, or his sister, or not just one but two or three or forty of his girlfriends? I think it is morally outrageous for us to lobby the state to carve out a special right for us rather than fighting the idea that the state has right to dictate and regulate marriage in the first place. As far as gay marriage being a ludicrous parody of the real thing, again, I’d tend to agree. And I’m hardly alone in that opinion. Even when we gain full marriage rights, I seriously doubt there will ever come a day when the majority of gay men decide to marry. More likely this is just a passing fad fueled mostly over outrage over the state’s discriminatory policies.
Comment by Firstwinsgop — May 11, 2008 @ 3:21 am - May 11, 2008