Date: 22 Feb 94 16:26:14 EST
Subject: Gays Promise more Protests as result of the Age of Consent Vote
From: anon@queernet.org (Anonymous Sender)

AP 02/22 06:20 EST V0094
   LONDON (AP) -- Gay rights supporters shouted "Burn the place down!"
outside Parliament after lawmakers refused to lower the age of consent
for sex between men to 16 -- the age of consent for heterosexuals and
lesbians.
   The House of Commons voted Monday to lower the age of consent from
21 to 18 but rejected an amendment that would have lowered it to 16.
   Parliament "voted to deny us human rights," said Peter Tatchell, a
spokesman for the gay rights organization Outrage. "Eighteen is not a
compromise. It's discrimination."
   Prime Minister John Major, seeking compromise on a divisive issue,
had backed the proposal to lower the age to 18.
   The amendment to lower it to 16 was sponsored by Conservative
lawmaker Edwina Currie and backed by the opposition Labor Party and the
British Medical Association.
   "I am not for gay rights. I am for equal rights for all," Currie
told the crowded chamber before the vote.
   But many lawmakers felt 16 was too young, saying 16-year-old boys
are too impressionable to know their sexual orientation and could
easily be influenced by older men.
   Sex between men of any age was outlawed in Britain until 1967. Sex
between women has never been illegal, supposedly because officials
lacked the nerve to explain to Queen Victoria what lesbians did.
   Men convicted of violating the age of homosexual consent can be
sentenced to up to five years' imprisonment, but the law is not
strictly enforced.
   At 21, Britain had the highest age of consent for gay sex in the
12-nation European Union. The age of consent for both heterosexual and
homosexual activity is 15 in France, 12 in Spain, and 17 in Ireland.

02/22 0406  BRITISH GAYS PLEDGE MORE PROTESTS AFTER CONSENT VOTE
     By Paul Majendie
     LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuter) - Enraged gay activists who tried to storm
parliament after British lawmakers rejected a bid to reduce the age of consent
for homosexual men from 21 to 16 warned on Tuesday of more "big and angry
protests."
     They pledged to keep up the fight for equality with heterosexuals and
lesbians and promised to take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
     "Democracy is not a licence to persecute minorities," gay activist Peter
Tatchell said after parliament narrowly rejected legalising sex between
homosexual men at the age of 16 and voted overwhelmingly to opt for 18 as a
compromise.
     Police had to slam shut the big oak doors of parliament after 6,000
demonstrators holding a vigil outside shouted "Scum" and "Shame on You" and some
tried to climb the building.
     Lawmakers were trapped inside as the protesters yelled "Burn it down" and
hurled bottles and placards at the door. Three men were arrested and a police
officer injured in the fracas.
     Tatchell pledged gay activists would march on parliament again. "We intend
to get arrested if necessary...I expect there will be big and angry protests in
the weeks ahead."
     Classical actor Sir Ian McKellen, another leading gay campaigner, said of
the furore "It was understandable."
     "Are 16 and 17 year-olds now to to be charged, arrested and imprisoned for
doing what their peers who are heterosexual do?
     "Parliament will be forced to do what it failed to do last night of its own
free will," he told BBC radio in an interview.
     Conservative former junior health minister Edwina Currie, who proposed 16
as the age of consent for gay men, blamed the demonstrators for the 27-vote
defeat of her motion: "Next time I shall ask them to stay at home and watch it
on TV. People got a bit intimdated."
     With members able to vote free of party constraints, passions ran high in
the packed House of Commons for its first debate on homosexuality in 27 years.
     Britain was in the vanguard when it decriminalised homosexuality in 1967
and set the age of consent at 21. But, until Monday night's vote, it had lagged
behind the rest of Europe in having the highest age of consent on the continent.
     The emotive issue proved delicate for the ruling Conservatives who have
been dogged by a string of recent sex scandals that left in tatters Prime
Minister John Major's "back to basics" campaign for a return to family values.
     Major led most of the cabinet in backing the compromise of 18 which was
carried by a massive 265-vote majority.
     But some Conservatives were enraged over the motion, which was part of the
criminal justice bill, and threatend to vote against it.
     "If I have to bring the whole bloody thing down, I will, said Conservative
John Watts.
     Two teenage gay activists have taken their case to the European Court of
Human Rights and campaigners have promised to monitor closely any cases of
teenagers being arrested for under-age sex.
     There was no mistaking their bitterness after running a highly organised
pressure campaign to sway parliament.
     Chris Smith of the opposition Labour Party, who is the only openly
homosexual member of the 651-seat parliament, said of the vote: "I don't think
it is worse than nothing. But it is very, very much second-best."
  REUTER