London Transport branch 'Jubilee South' passed the following resolutions at today's meeting. All three will now go the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender conference which is being held in Blackpool next month.

In addition to passing the motion on the charity 'Gay Men Fighting Aids' the branch also decided that a donation will be made to the group and further ways of supporting GMFA - such as affiliation - be investigated.

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Thatcher's Legacy of homophobia
We note that Margaret Thatcher’s Tory regime pursued many homophobic laws and policies, including:
- ‘Section 28’, which banned the ‘intentional promotion’ of homosexuality and described us as having ‘pretended family relationships’
- an inadequate and judgemental response to AIDS, which fuelled anti-gay prejudices
- ‘Paragraph 16’ and other attacks on gay parenting
- criminalisation of same-sex affection
- maintaining an unequal age of consent and refusal to legislate against homophobic discrimination

With an openly anti-gay government, it is no surprise that ‘queerbashing’ and homophobia rocketed during the Thatcher years.

Although Thatcher herself is now dead, and the current Tory Party leadership tries to present itself as more progressive, the Conservative Party remains riddled with homophobes, and in government, it is cutting the services we rely on and offering comfort and protection to homophobes, often using ‘religious freedom’ as a pretext.

We resolve to not let people forget the Thatcher government’s record on LGBT issues nor to allow the Conservative Party to ‘pinkwash’ is bigoted and anti-working-class politics.

Support for 'Gay Men Fighting AIDS'
We note with concern that the charity 'Gay Men Fighting AIDS' is having to reduce services and possibly worse as a result of a funding crisis.

This long running charity works with gay men in preventing the spread of AIDS through education and promotion of the causes and effects of this and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The AIDS crisis of the 1980's was inadequately tackled by the homophobic Thatcher government of the time. The current Tory government pushes the idea of a 'big society' o support such causes, but at this time of imposed austerity, we see there is ten million pound to spare for a Tory funeral whilst GMFA and other vital charities face cuts.

We resolve to support GMFA financially, and by offering assistance both in their call for financial support and in their current process of investigating how better to support gay men in future.

Homophobic outburst of Vladimir Yakunin
We utterly condemn the recent homophobic outburst of Vladimir Yakunin, the director of the Russian Railways RZD, a staunch ally of President Putin, and one of the most powerful men in Russia, who ranted at a recent trade fair in Germany, that "gays should just shut up" "the only rights they have is not to be beaten to death with sticks".

We call upon the RMT to send a message to the ITF affiliated Russian Railways Union Rosprofzhel reaffirming RMT's solidarity with Russian LGBT workers in their struggle against the current onslaught of state and religious sponsored homophobia.