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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

In praise of Peter Tatchell

Here are two news items to compare and contrast:

Case 1: Peaceful gay demonstrators are attacked by a mob of "ultra-nationalists and Orthodox Church hardliners". The police arrested the demonstrators.

Case 2: Peaceful Christian demonstrator is assaulted by a mob of gays and lesbians. The police arrested the demonstrator.

What's the difference? Well in the first case, Christians attack gays. In the second case, gays attack a Christian. And the first case takes place in Moscow, the second in Bournemouth. And the first case received substantial media coverage. The second one received rather less. Otherwise, not much difference.

Now, let's be clear about this. The events in Moscow were outrageous and disgraceful. Political opposition in Russia these days is a dangerous game to play, and the demonstrators, who included MPs and MEPs from several European countries, in addition to the British pop-singer Richard Fairbrass of the band Right Said Fred, and the notable British activist Peter Tatchell, were taking a calculated risk. Insofar as the demonstrators provoked a disgraceful response from the Russian police they have illuminated the scale of the problem they sought to highlight. To that extent they have achieved their objective.

In this respect, Peter Tatchell is particularly worthy of praise. Although he is a left wing former Labour Party candidate, and currently Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate (and therefore hardly a natural ally of the New Party), he has consistently shown considerable personal courage and integrity. It's not the first time he has been beaten up in the course of a demonstration. Thugs attending to Zimbabwe's gangster-president Mugabe on a visit to London gave him a hiding in the course of his demonstration against torture in Zimbabwe. In the process Tatchell showed considerably more guts in opposing the Zimbabwe regime than the British government did at the time, or has done since. He has also been vocal in denouncing the tendency of some on the modern left to abandon the traditional pro-women, pro-gay stance in order to strike alliances with reactionary Islamic groups.

It is therefore unsurprising that Tatchell was a rare voice speaking up for the beleaguered Christian demonstrator Harry Hammond, the victim of our Case 2 above. In response to the court action against Mr Hammond, Peter Tatchell wrote:

The conviction of Harry Hammond for displaying a placard criticising homosexuality is a grotesque misuse of the Public Order Act. His placard was offensive to gay people; that is not, however, a legitimate reason to suppress his right to protest and turn him into a criminal. Freedom of speech is so precious that it must be defended, even when we disagree with the sentiments expressed. Other than direct incitements to violence, there is no justification for criminalising words and opinions.

If Mr Hammond appeals, I would gladly testify in favour of his conviction being overturned.

Needless to say, there remain a large number of issues on which we would disagree with Peter Tatchell. Nevertheless, integrity such as this is rare enough in politics, and it deserves to be applauded. We wish him and his colleagues a speedy recovery following their travails in Moscow.

[Thanks to Andrew Sullivan]

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