The Government this week looked likely to head off a campaign led by Labour MP Glenda Jackson that could have given gays the same rights as heterosexual couples to 'inherit' housing association tenancies should one of them die. In October 1999 the House of Lords ruled that Martin Fitzpatrick, a gay man who had lived with his partner for 18 years and had cared for him for eight years after he became brain damaged and paralysed from a fall, could inherit his partner's tenancy. This ruling established that a gay couple in a stable relation ship could be defined as a family for the purposes of the rent acts. This month Parliament will wrestle once again with the highly charged issues of the age of consent and sex equality. I have become increasingly aware in campaigning on these issues under the slogan 'Equality 2000' that the key words are 'fairness' and 'family'.
Equality is a powerful and compelling concept, absolute and indivisible.
There is a heavy burden on anyone who argues for inequlity, for discrimination, against a minority. Just as important is the definition of the family. On almost every issue where lesbians and gay men seek to establish their basic rights as equal citizens, they are faced with the 'family' argument. We must convince the public and our political and moral leaders that legal recognition of committed same-sex relationships can only strengthen the social fibre. It will be a long, unattractive battle, with much prejudice.