A co-founder of Stonewall, Britain’s powerful LGBT lobby group, and the longtime head of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights, was named to the House of Lords last week by Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government.
A spokesman for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) told LifeSiteNews they are concerned that with the appointment, Michael “Cashman will use his role in Britain’s ‘revising chamber’ to continue his campaigning against life and family.”
Cashman, a retired Labor Party-affiliated MEP who represented the West Midlands in the European Parliament since 1999 and retired in May, has been a key player in the press for Britain to adopt the LGBT political agenda. He was one of the principal figures within Stonewall pressuring the group to adopt as a lead policy the demand to change the definition of marriage – to which the coalition government acquiesced for England and Wales amid vituperative debate in 2013.
While Cashman was the MEP at its head, the LGBT Intergroup commissioned a report that sought to “mainstream” LGBT priorities into all international law.
In 2008 Cashman, an Honorary Associate of the UK’s National Secular Society, scolded the Catholic archbishop of Riga, Cardinal Janis Pujats, as well as other clergy for daring to publicly oppose efforts to stage Gay Pride demonstrations in Latvia which he described as “inflicting their prejudices on others.”
“They should not interfere in a democratic state which abides by the rule of law. It is up to governments to govern and up to the clergymen to preach unto those who believe as they do,” Cashman said.
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Anthony Ozimic, communications manager of SPUC told LifeSiteNews that while it is routine for former members of the House of Commons or the European Parliament to be given seats in the House of Lords, the appointment is still a cause for concern. In this case, he said, it seems that the government is sending a clear signal that a continuing commitment to the LGBT movement’s objectives is one of its “vested interests.”
“Mr. Cashman’s record of decades of virulent campaigning against life and family will not have gone unnoticed by those involved in his appointment, especially David Cameron, who shares much of Mr. Cashman’s agenda,” Ozimic said.
He said Cashman’s appointment to the House of Lords should not be a surprise, given his prominence. He noted the “high-profile recognition” Cashman and his activism enjoyed from former Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair. Cashman was also granted the award of Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s honor’s list of 2013 for “public and political service.”