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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support these amendments. In Committee, I sought to introduce an amendment which would have extended to lesbian and gay people the protection against discrimination in the provision of goods and services, which the Bill sought to extend to those discriminated against on grounds of religion. My amendment was not very well drafted. I was advised that the Government were, in any event, due to introduce another Bill to bring legislation up to date. That would be a new equalities Bill, which would include protection for gay and lesbian people. However, that would mean a further lengthy waiting period. In the mean time, as my noble friend Lord Alli, has indicated, there is plenty of evidence that discrimination is now quite widespread. An article in the Independent recently demonstrated that gay and lesbian couples are frequently denied hotel accommodation, as my noble friend has indicated, sometimes—would you believe?—on the grounds that other guests would not like it. Now we have the Civil Partnership Act. I was appalled to learn that some local authorities are seeking to circumvent the provisions of the Act by refusing to permit civil partnership ceremonies on their premises. That is absolutely outrageous. Why should such bigotry stand in the way of citizens seeking to exercise a right which the Government say they should have? Moreover, in some areas and in some ways, we are still a homophobic society. There was the murder on Clapham Common recently, to which my noble friend Lord Alli, has referred. The police believe that that was homophobic. There have been instances of individuals being attacked simply because they were believed to be gay. It is about time that all that discrimination, which damages the lives of perfectly innocent people who simply want to get on with their lives, was ended. We now have before the House a much more sophisticated amendment than the one that I introduced in Committee. I hope that the Government will be prepared to consider it seriously and to accept the suggestion of my noble friend Lord Alli that there should be consultation. There is time between now and Third Reading and we must move to end that discrimination, which is quite unacceptable. I know that my noble friends on the Back Benches feel as we do about this. I commend the amendment to your Lordships.