1985. United front beats Rugby Council bigots
In September 1984, Rugby’s Conservative-led council removed ‘sexual orientation’ from its Equal Opportunities policies. Conservative councillors went out of their way to abuse LGBT people; amongst other things declaring that ‘all homosexuals are vile and perverted people’.
Such comments showed that the move wasn’t just about removing protection for LGBT employees – it also sought to prevent them from joining the workforce in the first place. Needless to say, The Sun newspaper lauded their actions.
But even the backing of the Murdoch media couldn’t prevent the Council from suffering a humiliating defeat less than six months later.
In response to the Council’s policy – and the vigour with which it was promoted – an alliance of trades unionists, LGBT activists and local Labour Party leaders established the ‘Stop the Lesbian and Gay Ban’ campaign.
The main public service union at that time – the National and Local Government Officers Association (NALGO) – had been one of the first to establish a specific lesbian and gay section and was, therefore, acutely aware of the importance of the issue. Their actions included supporting the various protest marches and pickets of council meetings as well as urging NALGO members to boycott jobs in Rugby Council.They also supported local lesbian and gay employees who had been threatened with dismissal if they took part in the protests.
Intimidation notwithstanding, a rally on November 10th 1984 saw a thousand people march through the town. 18 people were arrested after breaking through a police line aimed at preventing them from reaching the town centre.
The Council’s initial response to the rally was one of defiance: they declared that the ban would stay in place.
But they clearly under-estimated the strength of the opposition. As well as the protests and pickets going on outside the Council chambers, Labour councillors were actively fighting the ban from within too. This was particularly significant given the ambivalence on LGBT rights from the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee at that time.
The Conservative councillors bravado gradually began to waiver and, in February 1985, they convened an emergency council meeting to reinstate ‘sexual orientation’ into their Equal Opportunities policy. There was no further talk of ‘vile and perverted people’.
Nonetheless, Jeff Coupe, the chair of the Rugby Labour group was not prepared to let the bigots slip quietly off the hook. On behalf of the ‘Stop the Lesbian and Gay Ban’ campaign he demanded that the council make a public statement about their backdown:
“If you don’t do what you’re told, there’s going to be hundreds of ‘poofters’ on the streets next Tuesday!”
The Council made a public statement.
Comments
1985. United front beats Rugby Council bigots — No Comments
HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>