Pride in London has been defending itself after allowing controversial political party Ukip to take part in the Pride Parade.
Flo Lewis, the chair of LGBT in Ukip, tweeted her delight:
Yes. Gay people who want out of the EU will be dancing in the streets #Pride @ukiplgbt
— Flo Lewis (@FloLewis1) June 4, 2015
But others were significantly less happy, with hundreds signing a petition on change.org calling on the Pride board to remove Ukip from the parade lineup.
The party faces a struggle to be accepted by many in gay community, with several of its politicans attracting attention for their homophobic views. Amusingly, David Silvester – Ukip’s councillor for Henley-upon-Thames – said that heavy flooding across England was because of the government’s plans to legalise gay marriage. But less funny was a Ukip magazine article earlier this year which condemned Manchester’s Pride march, calling it a ‘parade of depravity’ with ‘a great deal of vulgarity and wickedness.’
Ukip MEP Roger Helmer said that being gay is ‘abnormal and undesirable’ and not to be ‘celebrated’. He also said that it was not a lifestyle worthy of valid equal respect.’ And another Ukip MPE, David Coburn, has said that equal marriage supporters are ‘equality nazis’.
A Pride spokesperson said: ‘Pride in London is inclusive of all LGBT+ groups, including political groups and – as with all entrants – they must sign and comply with our code of conduct. We provide a platform for every part of the LGBT+ community and respect the principles of free speech. We do not discriminate against people based on their political affiliation, and all political parties taking part in the Parade will be positioned together in the same section. However, Pride in London will continue to monitor community reaction and include the Community Advisory Board in this conversation.’
peasmoldia close. isis will commandeer a bus and drive it into the nearest building in protest 🙂 SoSoGay_News
SoSoGay Shame on them! The EU may not be perfect, but we’re definitely better with it than without it regardless of LGBT issues or not.
els76uk SoSoGay_News
With any luck it’ll be UKIP HQ.
U0001f615 http://twitter.com/peasmoldia/status/606515095015985152/photo/1
I predict a slight riot. I’d hate to be marching with them cause the crowd will turn
SoSoGay_News els76uk
Presumably there’ll be a Nazi float and an ISIS stall too then?
#facepalm