As we’re all probably aware, there seems to be allegations of Dog Whistling tactics within Reading’s Local Elections at the moment and I was quite surprised to see a blogger quote a piece that I had written from my blog with regards to the experiences I encountered in my first election last year.
As readers of my blog will know, I have never accused any particular local political party of the homophobia I encountered – even though I was told on numerous occasions where the comments that had been made were presumed to have originated from. Thankfully the experiences I had didn’t cause as much online controversy as the latest accusations have though they did spur me at the time to rekindle some of the campaigns I founded to fight discrimination – including the OK 2B GAY Campaign. It also reminded me of the need for the annual Reading Pride Festival (and the SupportU Centre) and so I became a trustee of the Reading Pride Charity. To do this in a position that is unbiased, I had to leave the lib dems and be independent of party politics altogether – in my mind the best move I could ever make – as It means that if elected, I can truly represent the needs of residents here in Whitley and not the needs of a political party.
I don’t know the candidate in question whose election leaflet has caused this stir so I do not feel that I am in a position to have an opinion either way but its fair to say that whilst it is possible that there may have been some Dog Whistling tactics this year, it’s also fair to say that simply the wrong choice of words have been used and that in hindsight, a better way of expressing what they were trying to say could have been found. I feel sorry for both the candidates involved – the labour candidate whose leaflet it is and the Tory candidate who bloggers are reporting the dog whistling tactics being aimed at. I really hope that this is just a genuine poor choice of words.
I can’t abide racism or homophobia or discrimination in any shape or form. It has no place in society and has no place in Reading. That’s why my election posters and my election literature state very clearly that I will continue to fight against discrimination in our ward as well as Reading. I believe that I’m the only candidate that includes this or something similar in their manifesto.
Ladies and Gentlemen, wake up to the alternative.