Why is the UK right wing relatively accepting of LGBT people?

I think because unlike the US; it doesn't have such a vast base of far-right Evangelicals, as we do here, especially in the south, and many rural areas. The overall religious sentiment of the voters seems more tolerant, with less fire & brimstone.

 

When something becomes so widely accepted, it would seem unfitting for a political party to be against it. Do you think Republicans and Democrats were always in agreement when it came to segregation, slavery, and women suffrage? If Abraham Lincoln were to come back alive, he wouldn't even recognize the Republican party. Political views change over time, and this is especially true with evolving social views.

 

Segregation still exists today, sadly. In big cities, we see that minority groups tend to live in the poorer areas. Though there is improvement, I don't think society has accepted that the damages from the past haven't yet been fixed. However, you're right in that LGBT acceptance has been moving much more quickly than racial equality. I feel like it's more of a cultural thing. As religion becomes less important in every day lives, people begin to realize on a secular level that LGBT citizens are neither a threat to their everyday lives, nor are they incapable of functioning normally in society.

 

That is sadly what Republicans should be about in America. They say they are about freedom when it comes to other things but when it comes to abortion or gay rights they are anti freedom. That is why I am a moderate person on most things. I believe in personal freedom pro gun pro gay and so on.

 

I think Bill Maher put it best; unlike Republicans, British conservatives are allowed to be sane.

 

The only freedom republican care about is the second amendment! Yes I do enjoy going out shooting deer and pheasants and I feel the UK gun law is too strict. But the bar is set waaay to low in the states.

 

Because the UK isn't right-wing.. well the people aren't. Socially they are left-wing but economically centrist I would suspect. The Conservatives in the UK are not right-wing in an American sense..

 

The center line is different in every country, in Finland The National Coalition Party is equivalent to the Tories here, but they are like a libertarian Blairite Labour. Every leader runs the party differently, Cameron is the most centrist leader the Tories have seen.

And within the definition of "conservative" there are conservatives, arch-conservatives and reactionaries - going from center right to far right. The Republicans are largely the last 2, whereas the Tories are the former.

 

I'm a bit perplexed by the OPs question, and the stereotypical views it betrays!

Firstly, I don't think the linear left wing/right wing distinction is always helpful. It originates in where people sat in the revolutionary National Assembly in late 18th century France. Modern politics doesn't always easily fit that model. Thus socialism is seen as 'left wing', and that makes anything that is not socialism 'right wing'. But does that make sense? Can you equate an authoritarian neo fascist worldview with an anarcho-capitalist libertarian world view. I mean, both are opposed to socialism and communism, but does that make them both right wing?

The British Conservative tradition is composed of many strands, including a strong libertarian strand (I was one of the libertarians who thought we were going to take control of the Party back in the 80s. Maggie's Militant Tendency, we were sometimes called!) In some ways the modern Conservative Party is heir to the free market and non interventionist liberalism of the 19th century and earlier, as well as the paternalistic conservatism of Young England.

Most British Conservatives, like most British people, I think, adopt a pragmatic 'live and let live' attitude. That the state should not intervene in people's lives more than it has to, and certainly should not run their private lives for them, is pretty central to British Conservatism. Thus acceptance of gay people has long been common in the British Conservative Party, even if that has sometimes been drowned out by a noisy but small socially traditionalist faction. Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher was surrounded by gay people, and the Party was generally accepting of us. And that acceptance was characteristic of the Conservative world view. Gay people were (and are) accepted in the Conservative Party as they are and for who they are, not for what they are. I got the impression that in the Labour Party, gay people would be expected to interest themselves in LGBT issues, women in women's issues, black people in issues thought to be of particular interest to black people, etc. Whereas in the Conservative Party, most people couldn't give a damn if you were black, gay, a woman, etc.

The first Jewish Prime Minister was a Conservative. The first woman Prime Minister was a Conservative. I would not be surprised if the first gay and black Prime Ministers are not Conservative (I hope they are) - but not because they are gay or black, but because they are best for the job (and Conservative, of course!)

 

Thatcher certainly had a fair few homosexuals in her cabinet but her premiership wasn't really an LGBT-friendly one, and most of her homosexual cabinet members weren't actually out - not publicly anyway. It was probably common knowledge within government at the time though, and highly suspected by the general public. Most of her LGBT policies merely reflected the prevailing public opinion at the time which wasn't supporting of homosexuality. Things like Section 28 weren't repealed until 2003.

Funny you should mention that - if Chuka Ummuna is elected Labour leader he might be the UK's first non-white Prime Minister. He is essentially a Blairite, or perceived that way, so should prove popular with self-serving Middle England.

 

The 80s in general were a 'don't ask, don't tell' time for gay people in Britain. And there was a huge panic about AIDS. It really is hard to explain the fear that people had. It coloured everything. The world was very different then, in so many ways. I am happy it is so much better now.

 

I'm quite surprised that the UK has 25 MPs that are openly LGB. That's nice.
Anyway, I've always thought right/left was more about economic policies and not social ones. Either way the fact that both parties in the UK are supportive of LGBT rights is a good sign.

 

I've never understood why people seem to think right-wing automatically means anti-gay. They're completely different things. I'm VERY right wing, but also VERY pro-gay rights, and I know a ton of people who are exactly the same. It really has nothing to do with each other.

The only reason the two seem to be combined in countries like the US, is because many people there vote right wing because of their religious beliefs, which automatically comes with homophobic ideals. In most European countries, voting right wing has absolutely nothing to do with religion (because there simply aren't that many religious people), so there are no accompanying homophobic ideals, either.

^So basically this.

 

"We don't do god" - Tony Blair's PR advisor.

As well as the fact that you would call the conservative's "liberal"

 

I'm certainly very happy that Thatcher and Reagan are gone. Having grown up in that era, I can't say how hateful and mean-spirited they were: to the poor, to minorities: Selfish Imperialistic goody-two-shoes, they were. If I despise any modern political figures the most, it's those two.

 

Why are they? Generally because most people in the UK are not narrow-minded. I do not mean that to sound like an insult to anyone, but in general most of us Brits do not care for what goes on behind closed doors. Note how I say "most" not "all". But for the best LGBT rights, Scotland has that podium! But then again, I am not surprised, being as Scotland is THE best at everything...Totes not bias with me being Scottish....*Looks sheepish*

 

More tories actually voted against than for gay marriage, but yeah the point stands. The David Mitchell link pretty much explains it.. to get into power David Cameron knew he had to modernise the party because tbh they were unelectable when they were in opposition to new labour. Now they do enough to convince people they're not so racist sexist and homophobic that they can stomach voting for them, and tbf they are a very different party to before Cameron took over. Even if being pro gay marriage was just cynical politics on his part, which I don't actually think it was, then it doesn't really bother me; to have a conservative led government introduce gay marriage is quite something

On why this can happen in the uk not us, well the whole political landscape is completely different. Your right wing politicians would be unelectable here just like our lefties would be unelectable over there; simply the centre ground in this country is much further left/liberal than in the US and thank god haha

 

(I'm biased as a passionate Labour Party member devastated by recent results) - I would say that there are a number of typical Tory, wealthy people from the same background who are gay. Since Cameron and his lot tend to favour their friends, the same applies to their wealthy, Etonian friends who are gay. It is easier to vote for 'equality' for them than it is to vote for 'equality' for all of us. If you are gay and disabled, gay and a parent of a disabled child, gay and unemployed, gay and an immigrant, gay and a refugee, etc ... you are pretty much done for under this government.