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Will your local party support you?
14 Apr 2010
A Day In Hand is a non-partisan organisation. We support any and all parties that show, through policies and action, that LGBT rights are human rights. In letters to constituency candidates in April, who were running for election in UK constituents with high proportions of LGBT voters, we sent invitations to publicly support our campaign. We asked constituency candidates to send in their pictures of same-sex hand holding to be published on our website and circulated amongst our supporters. The list of constituencies we have attempted communication with is below with parties that
have pledged support to A Day In Hand in brackets.
For pics and quotes scroll down
Brighton Pavilion (Green)
East Worthing & Shoreham (Green)
Brighton Kemptown
Hove
Vauxhall (Lib Dem)
Hampstead & Kilburn - (Lib Dem, Conservative, Labour)
Dulwich & West
Norwood
Streatham - (Conservative, Labour)
Birmingham Ladywood
Manchester Central
Camberwell & Peckham - (Lib
Deb)
Southwark North & Bermondsey
Leeds Central
Islington
North
Islington South & Finsbury
Battersea
Putney
If you'd like us to write to a candidate in your constituency, please
email David info@adayinhand.com
The pics and quotes below are listed in the order in which they were sent to us.
Streatham
Our first pic came from the Conservatives in Streatham.
Rahoul Bhansali, Conservative candidate for Streatham.
Rahoul says, "I am delighted to offer my support for this campaign and would urge
others to do the same. Discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, gender or
sexual orientation has no place in modern British society."
In the picture he is holding hands with his campaign manager. Here is a link to his website and Facebook site.
Streatham and Lambeth
"We at Streatham and Lambeth Labour would like to give our full support
to the Day in Hand campaign."
Please find attached a picture - in it, from left to right, are: Lionel
Owusu-Afriye, Labour campaigner; Mark Bennett, Cabinet Member for
Community Safety at Lambeth Council; Chuka Umunna, Labour Parliamentary
Candidate for Streatham; Keith Hill, former Labour MP for Streatham from
1992 to 2010."
Chuka Umunna, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Streatham, said:
"I fully support The Day in Hand campaign - the
diversity of the area which I'm standing to represent is something I'm
immensely proud of. Discrimination against same-sex couples is totally
unacceptable".
Cllr Mark Bennett, Cabinet Member for Community Safety at Lambeth
Council,
said:
"Labour councillors in Lambeth fully endorse the
Day in Hand campaign. With 6 gay councillors in our group of 37, we are
proud to play our part in representing the diversity of Lambeth, working
hard for communities of every race, age, belief, gender and sexual
orientation."
Hampstead & Kilburn
In Queen's Park on Sunday 18th April, councillors from all 3 major parties were canvassing. A Day In Hand was down to ask them to pledge their support.
Cllr Will Motley and Cllr Simon Green Virginia and
Violet (mother and daughter)
Ed Fordham and his partner, Cllr Russell Eagling.
Lyn
Tattum, Queen's Park Chair and Glenda Jackson
Glenda said, "I'm amazed there is even a need for this campaign, to
support same-sex couples who simply want to hold hands in public. I
fully support equality of respect for same-sex couples."
David and Chris Philip Sabah Hussain, Faezeh Faiz, Karina Dostolova
Chris Philp says, "I'm delighted to support this initiative. People should be free to express themselves without fear or inhibition. Gay people should be able publicly to express affection as readily as anyone else. I hope we build a fully tolerant society in this sense. I'm happy to hold hands to support this cause!"
Camberwell and Peckham
Cllr Columba Blango, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Camberwell and Peckham had this to say:
"Thank you for your letter, which I highly appreciate. I am a pure and true Liberal Democrat who strongly believe in equality, civil liberty, fairness and social justice.I am of African origin, part of the many minority groups in a diverse Borough like Southwark. We in Southwark have pride ourselves on our diversity, which makes this Borough unique and special. As much as I would not like to be discriminated against and live in hiding because of the colour of my skin, I would not wish the same on any other group because of their background, religious or sexual orientation.
I was Southwark council's executive member responsible for equalities, communities, citizenship, culture and sports from 2004 to 2008. During those period, I launched Southwark LGBT forum and went on to support and manage the forum throughout my term in office. I believe that if Britain should become fairer, every one, irrespective of race, creed or sexual orientation must have a voice and be free to practice what they believe.
In respect of the above, I declare my support for your campaign and promise to continue to support the LGBT groups for freedom and equality irrespective of the outcome of the election. But if however elected, I will be much more better placed to advocate at the highest level for the LGBT community in Southwark and against homophobic and transphobic hate crime, particularly in Camberwell and Peckham, which I believe has the largest LGBT community in Southwark."
Vauxhall
Cllr Caroline Pidgeon AM, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Vauxhall
"Thank you very much indeed for your letter outlining your day in hand campaign and work you are doing with the LGBT community. Apologies for the delay in replying – I have had a huge amount of correspondence! I think the campaign is incredibly important and I hope that it is very successful and that people do have more confidence in going out and holding hands in public. I am very happy to discuss the campaign further and what I can do as a candidate to help promote."
Brighton Pavilion
The Green Party candidates for Brighton Pavilion (Dr Caroline Lucas MEP), Brighton Kemptown (Cllr Ben Duncan), Hove (Cllr Ian Davey) and East Worthing & Shoreham (Dr Susan Board) all took part in a SSHH on Saturday. (L-R Ben, Ian, Caroline, Susan).
Susan said, "I am the Green Party parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham and would like to endorse your campaign. please find attached a picture of me with Caroline Lucas, Ben Duncan and Ian Davey - all PPCs for the Green Party taken on Saturday in Brighton. Thanks and good luck, Susan."
Special thanks to Josh Peck at Mandate and Sandip Patel.
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