Gibraltar Age of Consent to be taken to Gordon Brown directly by MEP Michael Cashman

Both the British and USA online gay press has taken up the issue of the unequal age of consent in Gibraltar, reporting both on GGR's submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee and on well-known MEP Michael Cashman's determination subsequently to raise the issue directly with the British Prime Minister (Cashman is pictured left with GGR Chairman Felix Alvarez). The below story is published today at the following link: http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/


Gay Age of Consent Equality: ‘We Have Given Gibraltarian Government Long Enough’


MEP Cashman to take matter to PM Brown


BRUSSELS, October 8, 2007 – A British Member of the European Parliament has pledged today to take the matter of equality of the age of consent in Gibraltar directly to the heart of Number 10 Downing Street.
“I will be raising the issue personally with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is a passionate supporter of equality,” Michael Cashman (PSE/UK Labour), the president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights, said today.

“We have given the Gibraltarian government long enough - now is the time to change the laws.”
ILGA-Europe is also concerned that the Gibraltar authorities are reluctant to bring this overseas territory of Great Britain into line with the European human rights standards.
“The age of consent for homosexual acts is still 18 where the age of consent for heterosexual acts is 16,” a spokesperson for ILGA-Europe said this afternoon.

“This difference in age of consent is discriminatory and contradicts Article 8 (Respect to a private and family life) of the European Convention of Human Rights as repeatedly confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights.

“ILGA-Europe urges the Gibraltar – and the UK authorities – to immediately remedy this situation and equalise the age of consent for all consensual acts between adults in Gibraltar.”
Last night (October 7), Felix Alvarez, chairman of Equality Rights GGR, hit out at both the Gibraltar and UK governments for stalling of the issue of equality.

Mr. Alvarez revealed that Equality Rights GGR has made a formal submission to the Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry on the Overseas Territories of the British Parliament.
In Gibraltar, the age of consent for heterosexuals is 16, and 18 for homosexuals.