David Cameron + gay rights

Independent
Samantha Cameron 'turned David into a modernising liberal'
But she is 'terrified' she will be compared to Cherie Blair
By Sophie Goodchild
Published: 11 March 2007

Samantha Cameron's decisive influence over her husband's conversion from traditional Tory to modernising liberal is revealed in a new biography of the Conservative leader serialised today.

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On issues such as the notorious Section 28, which outlawed councils from "promoting" homosexuality, friends say Samantha was far ahead of her husband.

Nicholas Boles, a Tory activist who is gay, said: "I remember that Samantha 'got it' much more and got much angrier about things like that."

> this is just hysterical - Daily Mail: Queen of the Cameroons

The reprimand for smoking cannabis at Eton did not stop Cameron succeeding academically, and in 1985 he went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where his good looks [huh?] and unforced charm meant he was rarely short of female attention.

He would go to old-fashioned sherry parties to meet girls and also went to the popular Playpen nightclub. There Cameron would set to work on the opposite sex for what he would call, a little crudely perhaps, an evening's 'wooding'. Purely as a precaution, he once felt the need to visit a sexual diseases clinic but not, as has been suggested, for an HIV test.

Here's one Mail Reader's take:

She's foul-mouthed and he's dabbled in drugs! I suppose they're a perfect couple for modern 21st century gutter-speak Britain, but it's a bit scary when you think that they could soon be in number ten!

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just a reminder of David Cameron's record on gay rights:

TheyWorkForYou

• A mixture of for and against equal gay rights. votes, speeches

Policy report — 'Homosexuality — Equal rights' compared to David Cameron MP, Witney

David Cameron MP, Witney agrees 41.7% (explain...) with the policy, Homosexuality - Equal rights.

House	Date	Time	Subject	Agreement
Commons	24 Oct 2001	18:03	Relationships (Civil Registration)	absent
Commons	29 Oct 2001	21:45	Adoption and Children Bill (Programme) — Consideration and Third Reading	absent
Commons	16 May 2002	17:45	Adoption and Children Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — Applications for adoption	disagree
Commons	20 May 2002	19:30	Adoption and Children Bill — [3rd Allotted Day] — Clause 131 — General interpretation, etc.	disagree
Commons	4 Nov 2002	20:15	Adoption and Children Bill — Suitability Of Adopters	absent
Commons	10 Mar 2003	19:15	Local Government Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — New Clause 11 — Repeal of Section 2A of Local Government Act 1986	disagree
Commons	10 Mar 2003	19:29	Local Government Bill — [2nd Allotted Day] — New Clause 11 — Repeal of Section 2A of Local Government Act 1986	absent
Commons	12 Oct 2004	18:42	Civil Partnership Bill [Lords]	agree
Commons	9 Nov 2004	17:00	Categories of civil partners other than same sex couples	absent
Commons	9 Nov 2004	18:59	Civil Partnerships Bill [Lords] — Schedule 28 — Consequential amendments: Scotland	agree

Cameron was quoted last year saying: “We want the gay community to look at us and hear what we have to say so that they can decide if we look and sound like their kind of party.”

Well, you can Google "David Cameron + Section 28". Here's what he told Jon Sopel in 2005:

JON SOPEL: Just looking back at things you were saying, just before you came into Westminster in 2000: "The Blair government continues to be obsessed with their fringe agenda, including deeply unpopular moves like repealing Section 28 and allowing the promotion of homosexuality in schools". You say it's a fringe agenda, and now you're trying to tell me it's central ... (overlaps)

DAVID CAMERON: Well I think it's absolutely essential that the Conservative Party reflects the country that it aspires to govern, and that's why we need to have candidates from the ethnic minority communities, more women candidates, we've got to do better in the North and in our cities, and that is absolutely vital.

BOTH TOGETHER

JON SOPEL: This from the Witney Gazette: "Blair has moved heaven and earth to allow the promotion of homosexuality in schools". Did he? [The whole quote was: "The Blair government continues to be obsessed with their ‘fringe’ agenda, including deeply unpopular moves like repealing Section 28 and allowing the promotion of homosexuality in schools.”]

DAVID CAMERON: Well that was the whole argument about Section 28.

JON SOPEL: Well did he? Did he? Was he shifting heaven and earth to allow the promotion of homosexuality in schools or might you look back at that quote and think oh, maybe that's a bit ...

DAVID CAMERON: (overlaps) I think, I think that Section 28, I'm glad that it's gone. I think that actually, it was an issue where clearly gay people felt that it was discriminatory against them.

And one can have lots of arguments about, should local authorities be telling, or the government be telling what, schools what should be taught in terms of sex education.

I think that's a fair argument. But at the end of the day, one section of our community did feel discriminated against by Section 28, and so I'm glad on that basis that it's gone.

JON SOPEL: So he wasn't shifting heaven and earth to promote ...

DAVID CAMERON: I've said what I said John, I think it's pretty clear.

Clear as mud ...