Another Tory Homophobe Rears His Head

After Cameron’s laissez-faire attitude towards anti-gay voting by his MEPs and his Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling’s vocal support for the right of B&B owners to discriminate homophobically, we now have the case of Julian Lewis – the Shadow minister for Defence attacking an equal age of sexual consent:

David Cameron was urged to sack one of his frontbench team who said the age of consent for homosexuals should not have been lowered to 16 because it put teenage boys at “serious physical risk” and in danger of catching HIV.

Julian Lewis, the shadow minister for Defence and Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Hampshire seat of New Forest East, wrote to a constituent last week saying he had been “very strongly against” lowering the age of consent for gays from 18 to 16 because of the “seriously increased risk of HIV”. He appeared to compare it with the decision to prevent service personnel aged under 18 from fighting on frontlines. Last night, Dr Lewis reiterated his view, telling The Independent that anyone aged 16 to 18 who had unprotected gay sex was “at risk, and potentially at risk of their lives”.

Dr Lewis wrote last week: “There is a seriously increased risk of HIV infection from male homosexual activity. When it comes to legalising practices that involve serious risk, I believe the higher limit should apply. This is the reason we no longer allow 16- and 17-year-olds into frontline situations in the armed forces, for example.”

Dr Lewis, 58, has a history of voting against legislation enshrining gay rights. He opposed adoptions by gay couples and also battled against the repeal of Section 28 – a law enacted by Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government in 1988 to prevent schools from “promoting” homosexuality. Dr Lewis, does, however, back civil partnerships.

“One of the criticisms commonly made of gay relationships is that very often they do not last,” he explained in his letter. “It therefore seems obvious to me that, when a gay couple wish to commit to each other, by forming a permanent relationships, they should be encouraged and assisted in every way.”

Why doesn’t he just go the whole hog and just embrace social Darwinism while he’s at it? I mean our clearly lesser relationships need the help of the state to last, otherwise they’d just fail. Pathetic, and it’s yet another nail in the coffin for Cameron’s attempt to rebrand the Conservative Party as no longer ‘nasty’. Notably Cameron has failed to fire Lewis from his shadow cabinet position, and considering he didn’t discipline Grayling either, is sending out a really strong message that he’s not in control of the attitudes of a party which is now desperately worried it’s losing…

Senior, old-school Tories like Mr Lewis always assume that TEH GAY means that teenage boys need special protection from AIDS RIDDLED OLDER GAYZ, and in their frenzy forget that teenage boys and girls (both gay and straight) tend to make better sexual decisions when they’re better informed about the subject. Then again the Tory Party doesn’t believe in mandatory sex education.

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