On June 29, outgoing U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared that the British House of Commons is “the gayest Parliament … in the world.”
Starmer, who resigned on June 22, hosted an LGBT event for “pride” month at 10 Downing Street. He was introduced by lesbian Labour MP Olivia Bailey, who joked that her hairstyle was inspired by Starmer’s and introduced him as a “lesbian style icon.”
Starmer, beaming, responded to that introduction with great pleasure. “Lesbian style icon, I like that,” the prime minister said. (To imagine any of his esteemed predecessors uttering such a line stretches the mind to breaking point.)
“I’m really proud that we’ve got the gayest Parliament,” he declared. “I don’t think, just of all time, anywhere in the world, I don’t think there’s any Parliament that is gayer than this Parliament. That is fantastic.”
The U.K. Parliament has 76 members who identify as LGBT, with 62 MPs from Starmer’s Labour Party, four from the Tories, one from the Green Party, and eight from the Liberal Democrats. Starmer emphasized during his speech that the Labour government will function as the political arm of the LGBT movement in every respect possible.
“I want to be clear that all lesbians, all gay, all bi and trans people – that this government will defend your rights,” he stated. “We have to stand against the politics of division.” He highlighted his “full trans-inclusive ban on abusive conversion practices” that outlaw “a very sinister idea … trying to suggest that identities aren’t legitimate.”
Ironically, Starmer’s “conversion therapy ban” is an extraordinarily totalitarian piece of legislation that defines “abusive conversion practices” as including “controlling or coercive words or behavior” and “psychological or emotional pressure". This is aimed not only at Christians and other traditionalists who offer help to confused individuals to go straight, or at least to avoid getting themselves poisoned or mutilated, it could even make it illegal for parents to affirm their child’s biological sex and criminalize body-affirming therapy for people who struggle with gender dysphoria.