Equal Opportunities

Discrimination In Goods And Services – Sexual Orientation

The CWU has long campaigned for true equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in every aspect of their lives. The announcement by the Government before the election that they were including in the Equality Bill the outlawing of discrimination in goods and services on the grounds of religion made us even more determined to get the law changed.

Pressure on the Government by the unions culminated in a motion being carried at the recent Labour Party Conference with the positive support of the unions. An amendment had been tabled by the House of Lords designed to include goods and services in the Equality Bill. The aim of the amendment is to ensure that lesbian, gay and bisexual people can no longer be discriminated in respect of the provision of goods and services.

On Thursday 10 November 2005 the Government finally succumbed to the pressure and Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced the Government would be accepting the amendments tabled by Lord Alli and Lord Lester. Alan Johnson has agreed, therefore, to table regulations to prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods, facilities and services.

A Government Press Release explains that the Equality Bill would also:

• Establish the new single Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) and define its purpose and functions;
• Make unlawful discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief in the provision of goods and services; and
• Create a duty on public authorities to promote equality of opportunity between men and women (the gender duty) and to prohibit sex discrimination in the exercise of public functions.

The law will not be introduced immediately as the scope of the regulations will be subject to full public consultation.

The CWU welcomes the decision of the Government that is clearly a very major step in the right direction. However, whilst this is a significant move, to believe that it bans homophobia is far from the true. There are many more positive initiatives that the Government could do. There is no public duty to promote equality based on sexual orientation in line with other discrimination legislation, no hate crime legislation and no current initiatives on homophobia in schools. This is a positive advance but we will continue to work for more upgraded legislation on this and other equality legislation in the Single Equality Act.