Results 1-20 of 23 for gay speaker:Simon Hughes

Modernisation of the House of Commons (Standing Orders): Speaker's Conference (12 Nov 2008) has video

Simon Hughes: ...Cambridgeshire (Mr. Vara), I hope that its sentiment is accepted. This debate should not be only about women, or people from black and ethnic minorities, or disabled people. It should also be about gay people and young and older people, and about having a diverse Parliament. Unless we see that in the broad spectrum, we are not fulfilling Parliament's expectations of us. I join those who...

Points of Order: April Adjournment (3 Apr 2008) has video

Simon Hughes: .... He came to the United Kingdom to study and was led to believe that if he went back to Iran he could be in severe trouble, or worse, because it had been announced publicly that he had had a gay relationship in Iran. I am not sure of all the historical facts, and it is not appropriate to share all of them now, but he makes the case that a former partner of his has been executed on the...

Business of the House (6 Mar 2008) has video

Simon Hughes: ...is much opposition to them, and whether, as is illustrated by the case reported on the front page of one of our national papers today about a constituent of mine, the Home Office is still insisting that gay people should be sent back to countries such as Iran.

Business of the House (28 Feb 2008)

Simon Hughes: ...are very angry about because they feel the ancestry issue and their commitment to this country is being disregarded, and to debate Home Office policy, which is still willing on occasions to send gay people back to countries such as Iran where they could be persecuted, and even executed? Finally, given that we now know that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence does not...

Sexual Offences Bill [Lords] (15 Jul 2003)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...be used by the public, should not be no-go areas for the citizens of this country when they need to use them for the purpose for which they were intended. That is not a sexist, homophobic or anti-gay point—public conveniences are meant to be safe places, but often they are taken over and have become thoroughly unpleasant places. When the Bill has completed its passage, there should...

Public Bill Committee: Criminal Justice Bill: Clause 129 - Increase in sentences for racial or religious aggravation (30 Jan 2003)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...category prejudices against those who are Sikhs or who are black, but that we are not registering the fact that people can suffer terrible crimes because they have a disability or because they are gay or female.

Orders of the Day — Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill — [2nd Allotted Day]: Clause 38 — Religious hatred offences (26 Nov 2001)

Mr Simon Hughes: I respect the hon. Lady's view, but I disagree with her. I have served on Committees and participated in other debates in which we have tried to get hate crimes—religious hate crimes, gay hate crimes and so on—on to the statute book, but the Government of the day have said that the time was not right or appropriate. The issue is not new. I accept the point raised by the hon....

Public Bill Committee: Criminal Justice and Police Bill: New Clause 6 - Police directions stopping the harassment etc of a person in his home (6 Mar 2001)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...or Sikhs are attacked because they are Muslim or Sikh, for them the evil is the same as in a race crime. As happened in the Admiral Duncan, if people are targeted because they are thought to be gay by a madman, their perception is that they have been targeted because of their sexual orientation. The victims' experiences would be similar to those in race crimes. I raise the question because...

Orders of the Day — Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill (10 Feb 2000)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...any ground". It listed all the grounds that had been identified. The then Government said that it should be possible for Britain to argue that we were entitled to have 18 as the age of consent for gay relationships, but 16 for the rest. The Commission ruled by 14 votes to four that there had been a violation. It had listened to the Government's argument, but did not accept it. As the...

Orders of the Day — Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill (10 Feb 2000)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...life and on gender, sex and race matters that obviously led them to conclude that people should be treated equally. I was born in the year in which the convention was signed, but I am sure that gay people in the first half of the century would have expected that their time would soon come and that they would be given equal status under legislation such as this.

Orders of the Day — Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill (10 Feb 2000)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...to considering the more sensible point made by the hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Bow (Ms King) about how to protect young people from abuse, we would do the country a service. One cannot tell gay people, who, according to any projection are likely to be a minority of the community, that they are valued as equals if the law does not treat them as such. We cannot get away with that. It...

Orders of the Day — Home Affairs, Education and Employment (23 Nov 1999)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...Government's job is to look after the few just as much as they do the many, in whatever walk of life. A minority of our citizens are immigrants, asylum seekers, black or Asian, children, lesbian or gay, mentally ill or disordered, or old. We are all minorities sometimes. The House's job is to ensure that the rights of minorities, as well as the interests of the majority, are defended. One...

Orders of the Day — Health and Welfare (26 Nov 1998)

Mr Simon Hughes: ..., that although the prevalence of HIV in this country is relatively low—22,000 cases—there are still 2,500 new diagnoses each year. Of those cases, about 1,500 are men—often gay men—and young people form a high proportion. We must spare no effort. Perhaps there is some complacency because, owing to vaccines and therapies, people with HIV do not necessarily look as...

Orders of the Day — Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill: After Clause 136 (20 Oct 1994)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...it to the Minister that resisting the addition of the word "recklessly" does not meet the concern. The Minister nows my borough. In the past few weeks, I have had at my surgery a black family, a gay couple and some disabled people who have all been badly harassed. Let us imagine that somebody had attacked the homes of those people when they were not in them, careless as to whether they...

New clause 3: Amendment of Law Relating to (21 Feb 1994)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...at 16, but return—I ask the Home Secretary to make sure that we do—to the question whether that equality should be at 16 or 17. I believe that there may be widespread support, from gay people included, for a re-examination of that issue. We can then have a debate not about criminality but about the right way to order without discrimination private activity in Britain today.

New clause 3: Amendment of Law Relating to (21 Feb 1994)

Mr Simon Hughes: I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in support of new clause 6, which proposes that the age of consent for gay relationships should be 17. Tonight's debate is limited to relationships between men, but an identical new clause is proposed that would make 17 the age of consent for heterosexual relationships. One important consideration is already reflected in criminal law. There should...

Orders of the Day — Criminal Justice Bill: Restrictions on Imposing Custodial Sentences (20 Feb 1991)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...I have not had the opportunity personally to check the statistics, I must advise the Minister that the evidence shows that the present law appears to be used overwhelmingly against allegedly gay activity, rather than other activity. That suggests a lack of equity, and therefore discrimination. The second objective of principle is that we must seek to avoid discrimination in the application...

Orders of the Day — Local Government Bill: Prohibition on Promoting Homosexuality by Teaching or by Publishing Material. (9 Mar 1988)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...mine had even worse happen to them. I got off 'lightly'. Measures need to be taken to combat this prejudice, and some local councils had begun to do this within education and by aiding lesbian and gay groups, etc, with money and resources. (Money and resources that as rate-payers we are entitled to.) This education is not promotion of homosexuality, it is only a presentation of it in a...

Orders of the Day — Local Government Bill: Prohibition on Promoting Homosexuality by Teaching or by Publishing Material. (9 Mar 1988)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...of the Labour party. I understand and appreciate the fact that Mr. Speaker could not select the amendments I tabled, but I believe that they would have been to the advantage of the clause and the gay community. The hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury (Mr. Smith) does not share that view. However, the advice that I received from people who looked at the issue carefully was that...

Orders of the Day — Local Government Bill: Prohibition on Promoting Homosexuality by Teaching or by Publishing Material (15 Dec 1987)

Mr Simon Hughes: ...cited a second example—it has been dealt with by the hon. Member for Copeland — concerning the London borough of Ealing and a job advertisement. It concerned a worker for lesbian and gay rights, but the hon. Gentleman did not say that that advertisement had had all-party support within that borough. In the event, the post has not been filled.