It has often been said that a week is a long time in
Politics – but last week was simply a very bad week for equalities.
Not only has David Cameron removed three women from the
cabinet and added just one women, she is Maria Miller, now the new culture
secretary and also responsible for Women and Equalities, an appointment that
has immediately attracted significant criticism
from equality campaigners . Gone is equalities champion LibDem Lynne Featherstone,
off to a new role in the Department of International Development, but as far as
I can see her role as Equalities Minister is not being replaced, signalling
that the equalities agenda is being further marginalised by this government .
Instead the Women and Equalities role which had been part of
the overall responsibilities of Home Secretary Theresa May is now part of the overall
responsibility of the New Culture Secretary arguably because she is a working
mum and will champion the cause for women.
Unfortunately other protected characteristics may not be as lucky.
Maris Miller has a long and questionable
record when it comes to voting on LGBT issues. She has voted against gay
adoption and fertility treatment for lesbian couples and has managed to be
absent from every other vote regarding LGBT issues since she became an MP in
2005.
For trans people this is a sad time. Lynne Featherstone has long been a champion of
Trans rights helping to get the gender recognition proposals in to law and more
recently publishing the transgender action plan. I have to wonder what will now happen to that. Will the Transgender Action plan simply get
left on a shelf never to be revisited?
After the criticism for reducing the presence of women in
cabinet by 20% last week, David Cameron has apparently now ordered Maria Miller
to draw up plans to appeal to women voters – and with quite a lot of feminist
pressure in the news I suspect that the trans issues will move to the back
burner.
At the same time with a huge campaign underway by the
Catholic Church in Scotland opposing same sex marriage and a new minister responsible
for equalities who has a record of opposing gay rights and seems opposed to
same sex marriage, I suspect that much of the work that Lynne Featherstone
had done to progress equal marriage will also be undone.
So what action can we take - On the Change.org site a petition
has already started asking the Prime Minister to remove Maria Miller as
Minister for Equality – I have signed it – Please consider doing the same - She is simply the wrong person for the equalities job.
Sign the petition to remove Maria Miller here
