G7's legitimisation of the BNP

Following on my from my last post when I blogged about G7 and his apparent dislike of all things connected with the LGF. I refer back to his quote over the funding:

"The LGF is a registered charity. In the year ending 2008, £623,103 of its income came from several NHS Primary Care Trusts. This represented around 55% of its total income of £1,122, 280 for that financial year."

Therefore, 45% of their income must not come from the NHS - Simple elementary mathematics.

G7 then goes on to say that the LGF are playing politics with public money. On his website, he states:

"I don’t support the British National Party (BNP). On the other hand, it is a legal political party in this country, with politicians who have been elected democratically."

Well, there is no other hand, legitimising a fascist party is just how they become mainstreamed into the political system. Look at Le Pen of the Front National in France and Jobbbik in Hungary.

G7 then refers to an article on the LGF website which is an interview with Searchlight which urges LGBT voters to vote against the BNP. It goes on to say:

"This is a disgraceful abuse of the LGF’s position, charity status and NHS funding. It should provide a service for everyone. Any involvement in politics should be limited to lobbying for the various causes it is concerned with and maybe highlighting the differences in policy between the various parties.

Encouraging people to campaign against one particular political party is well out of order in my opinion, especially when an inducement is offered. Hilariously, in the About Us section of the LGF website it states:

Diversity: We believe we should be accepting of others and celebrate people’s difference.

Fairness: We believe everybody should be treated with dignity and respect.

The worst part is that this is exactly the kind of thing that is alienating certain LGBT people and driving them right into the arms of the BNP. They feel that the narrowly-focused Canal Street ‘community’ in Manchester isn’t for them. "

I am sure that when the LGF provides it's core services, it does so without discrimination to service users and does not ask about political belief. The LGF is key in campaigning against hate crime and homophobia and this should include campaigning against the BNP. The rise in incidences of hate crime since the BNP were elected speaks for itself. It s well out of order in G7s opinion to encourage people to campaign against one particular party. Well, in my opinion, that sounds really suspect when that party have been exposed as homophobes, racists and fascists. As for LGF treating everyone with fairness, respect and dignity, I am sure this applies to people who deserve it but maybe G7 wants to read up a little more on what the BNP actually do say about us as do any LGBT people who feel alienated and are being driven into the arms of the fascist BNP.

And by the way I am not part of the 'Canal Street Community'.

On the 31st May 2009, G7 updated his website with this:

"The Charity Commission supports ‘a charity’s right to campaign provided that they are clear about the link between the campaign and their objects and remain independent of political parties. However, in the case of the LGF’s article about the BNP, the Commission decided it wasn’t as clear as it should be. So it will write to the charity to ‘highlight this issue’ and remind them to ‘clearly demonstrate the link between the political party’s policy and their objects when campaigning’."

Well, I would not have thought the LGF would have much difficult with showing the link between the homophobic hate, hate crime and other anti-gay discrimination propaganda contained in the BNP's policy and the LGF's objects around campaigning.

G7 v LGF

The lesbian and Gay foundation (LGF) Motto s 'Ending homophobia Empowering People'. They provide a holistic approach to health services and include tackling hate crime and homophobia as part of their agenda. They are a registered charity and produce an annual report and accounts.

I was reading their 2008 / 2009 annual report and saw that they received

• £4000 (0.3%) Donor Supporters Scheme - via receipt of monthly donations
• £102, 000 (8%) Events, donations and corporate sponsorship - from charity challenges, corporate sponsorship and other donations.
• £965k (77%) Charities Activities Income - for goods and services provided for the benefit of the LGF’s beneficiaries.£241k (16%) Fees and other sales - advertising in OutNorthWest, room hire, counselling and training.

They do receive some support from the NHS for the health services that thy provide. The G7 website states in the year ending 2008, £623,103 of its income came from several NHS Primary Care Trusts and that his represented around 55% of its total income of £1,122, 280 for that financial year.

The LGF annual report states their expenditure for 2008 / 2009 was:

• £46k (3.5%) Research - Expenditure on our research projects.
• £25k (2%) Governance - General running costs to meet constitutional and
  statutory requirements.
• £138k (10.4%) Generating Funds - This is the cost of raising voluntary income and costs associated with our other generated income.
• £596k (45%) Services - Expenditure on our services including health,
  therapeutic and advice services, plus our condom and lube scheme.
• £23k (1.7%) Grants Paid - Support to smaller LGB groups in the
  local area
• £492k (37.2%) Information - Expenditure on our magazine, website,
  resources and other types of information giving..

So why then does G7 have nothing else to with his time then to try and bring down the LGF. First he blogs about two employment tribunal rulings against them quoting Pink News for further information. This is all well and good and bad employment practices need to be exposed. I, as a trade unionist, do not believe that anyone should be discriminated against or unfairly dismissed and it is even more concerning when such practices take place n an organisation which s supposed to value diversity. However, the LGF have paid their price.

G7 then continues on his blog to outline the funding crisis that LGF is facing. He states that they are owed money by advertisers and that they have cut down the number of publications of their magazine. The LGF state themselves that they can no longer rely on the same level of public funding. None of this is hardly a revelation. We are in a recession, where money is tight for businesses and they probably pay their bills for advertising at the last minute if at all. Public funding of charities is being scaled down as funding of public services is being cut. As a public service worker being offered a 1% pay increase and with colleagues in local government and the national health service facing redundancy due to funding cuts, then inevitably there will also be cuts in donations to the community and voluntary sector.

And if G7 has not had enough with having a go at LGF, read more here what he says about the LGF playing politics with public funding. This s because the LGF urged LGBT voters to use their vote n the Euro elections and ran an article in their magazine OutNorthWest where all parties standing for election were invited to say why LGBT voters should vote for them. They also published on their website an article exposing the homophobia of the BNP and an interview with Searchlight. I have more to say about this here.

I'm glad I don't live in London

May 2 really was St Boris Day who in fact is the patron saint of Bulgaria but definately not the patron saint of London nor a friend of LGBT people although Boris Johnson, the newly elected London Mayor would have you believe he is. Some of us will remember the recent Stonewall hustings when he lost his temper when being questioned over his position on gay rights seeing that sometimes he votes in favour and then writes homophobic banter. He repeatedly said that he did not believe that the state should not intervene in matters such as marriage and what is taught in schools. This is probably an indication that LGBT equality will not be high on his agenda now he is Mayor and it would be interesting to know what else he does not think the state should interfere in.

Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary said to the BBC "The election of Boris Johnson as mayor is a bad day for London, for Londoners and for the capital's public services. In time, Londoners will regret electing this Conservative as their champion. We are particularly worried about the effect that the election of a BNP assembly member will have on race relations and community harmony."

The London Assembly results showed a swing to the Tories with Labour managing to keep hold of some seats but the election of the BNP candidate Richard Barnbrook is a travesty. He denies the BNP is racist. He also says "You can be gay behind closed doors, you can be heterosexual behind closed doors, but you don't bring it onto the streets, demanding more rights for it."

For more comments on the election read Craigs LGBT blog.