The FBU sent a delegation of four to this year’s TUC LGBT+ conference in London in June.
A motion from the FBU LGBT+ section focused on challenging the Conservatives’ plans to deport immigrants and failed asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The FBU LGBT+ committee considered this to be an important issue for our community as the then home secretary had made statements that she believed LGBT+ identity was not grounds for asylum.
Previous attempts to commence deportations to Rwanda had been stopped by the courts which ruled that Rwanda could not be viewed as a safe place to receive deportees.
The Conservatives, using their parliamentary majority, forced through laws to declare Rwanda safe.
Rwanda, while not having specific anti-LGBT+ legislation, is not considered a safe place for people to be LGBT+.
Its neighbour Uganda introduced new legislation last year allowing the death penalty for what was described as “aggravated homosexuality”.
The FBU motion called for a wider campaign to stop any deportations to Rwanda. At the time of it submission in February, there was a strong push by the government to get the deportation scheme up and running.
By the time conference took place, a general election had been called and was scheduled to take place in the following week.
It was fairly clear that Labour would take power and the party had committed to ditching the Rwanda deportation plans. It was still important to move the motion in order to have policy in place should these commitments not be honoured.
The FBU motion was the first to be heard on the opening of conference and was passed unanimously. Following Labour’s election success, one of the new government’s first actions was to affirm its commitment to no deportations to Rwanda.
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack addressed conference in his capacity as this year’s TUC president. The union’s delegation was given the honour of moving the vote of thanks to close conference.
■ The FBU delegation also attended the London Fire Brigade (LFB) Pride Breakfast at Soho fire station. Following the reception, we joined our union and fire service contingent for the London Pride parade (left) with an appliance from LFB and the FBU’s campaign fire appliance. For the first time, this year a joint t-shirt was produced recognising both the FBU and LFB parading in celebration of the LGBT+ community
