Did obama have the gay pride flag flown at us embassies
Johnson has not responded to interview requests from PinkNews ahead of the leadership vote. Johnson also jumped to the defence of Spectator columnist and government advisor Toby Young in 2018, attacking a “ridiculous outcry” over his use of the terms “hard-core dykes” and “queer as a coot.” Candidate promises to ‘champion’ LGBT+ issues if made Prime Minister In 2018, Johnson greenlit a law in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda that imposed a fresh ban on same-sex marriage, despite calls for him to invoke powers to block it on human rights grounds.Ī court later ruled that the Bermudian anti-gay marriage law was indeed a violation of human rights. However, his time serving as Foreign Secretary also generated criticism from LGBT+ activists. Boris Johnson attends a Stonewall event in 2012.
The Foreign Secretary also met with Russian LGBT activists and praised their work on a trip to the country in 2017. Reversing a long-standing policy, Johnson confirmed to PinkNews that he would permit embassies to fly rainbow flags to mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia and Pride celebrations. Reforms and controversy as Foreign SecretaryĪfter becoming Theresa May’s Foreign Secretary in 2016, Johnson scrapped a controversial ban on Pride flags being flown from UK embassies and consulates around the world. Johnson skipped the Pride parade for several years towards the end of his time in office, missing the event in 2011, 2012, 2013, 20.
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However, Johnson’s propensity for gaffes caught up with him in 2013, when he was forced to apologise for a joke about gay people.Īddressing a room full of LGBT+ activists, Johnson had quipped about gay men taking their husbands “up the Arcelor,” a reference to the observation tower in London’s Olympic Park. Two years later, he backed the Out4Marriage campaign calling on the government to pass equal marriage, adding: “I see absolutely no reason why that happy state should be denied to anybody in our country and that’s why I am supporting the Out4Marriage campaign.” He told PinkNews: “If the Conservatives and Liberals can get together in a national coalition and settle their differences, I don’t see why you can’t have gay marriage.” Mayor of London Boris Johnson leads the city’s Pride parade on J(Peter Macdiarmid/Getty) While attending the event in 2010, Johnson became the highest-ranking Conservative to come out in support of marriage equality in an interview with PinkNews. Serving as Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016, Johnson led the city’s Pride parade on several occasions. That is why I voted against my party line and for the repeal of Section 28, in defiance of the Conservative Party line.” As Mayor of London, Boris Johnson backed equal marriage The MP explained: “I object to schools being told what to do by government. Johnson claimed: “If gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.” In Parliament, Boris Johnson was an early pro-LGBT rebelĭespite his early beliefs, Johnson’s legislative record is markedly more liberal.Įlected to Parliament for the first time in 2001, Johnson rebelled against his own party on several occasions to back LGBT+ rights measures.ĭefying the Conservative leadership at the time, Johnson voted in 2003 to abolish Section 28, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools, and voted in 2004 to permit civil partnerships for same-sex couples.Īlongside George Osborne and John Bercow, Johnson was one of just a handful of Tory MPs who were willing to back the Labour government’s LGBT+ reforms. Boris Johnson sits in his London office in 2003 (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty) He also hit out at same-sex unions in his book Friends, Voters, Countrymen, published in 2001. In his columns, Johnson referred to gay people as “tank-topped bum boys” and attacked “Labour’s appalling agenda, encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools.” Ahead of the leadership vote, opponents of Johnson have focused fire on his history of casual anti-gay rhetoric in 1990s newspaper columns.