Richard Kirker was 16 when same-sex relationships between men over 21 were partially decriminalised in 1967.  He came out four years later.  He joined the LibDems in 2008 after retiring as a CEO from 30 years active campaigning in the LGB charity sector.  After seeing how far LibDem policy has deviated from the fundamentals of liberalism, for instance in its blatantly intolerant definition of transphobia, as well as  being behind the times in failing to support the outcomes of key employment tribunals initiated by Maya Forstater and Alison Bailey, and in the face of the persistent erasure of lesbian/gay rights and women only spaces, he felt that the LGB Liberal Forum was needed.  The cancellation of the LGB Alliance stall for Autum Conference 2022, and the way it was mishandled by the Party, crystallised his dismay.

Toby Keynes

Toby went on his first gay rights march, calling for a reduction of the age of consent for gay men from 21 to 16,  3 weeks after his 16th birthday in November 1975, and was quote on the front page of Gay News; in his teens, he was active in the London Gay Teenage Group, Gay Activist Alliance, Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and the NUS Gay Rights Committee, and Convenor of Gay Cambridge; he became a founder officer of Gay Social Democrats in 1981, and later served as an officer of London Frontrunners. A founder member of the party, and its predecessor the SDP, he’s filled many party roles over the years, most recently as Cha ir of Humanist & Secularist Liberal Democrats. He was attacked, kicked in the head and hospitalised in his teens whilst leaving a gay youth meeting; he’s horrified to see people once again being excluded, harassed and vilified, but now in the name of “inclusion” because they dare to declare that they are same-sex attracted.

John Clinch

John is an employment lawyer and advises clients on discrimination law. He grew up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles there, an experience that left him with a deep distrust of nationalism and identity politics. Having worked for many years in the trade union movement, he joined the Hackney party 15 years ago, where he has been ever since. As a trade unionist, he witnessed at first hand some of the tensions in the fight for minority rights. Then, the 1990s, was a time of great political progress in the cause of lesbian and gay rights, won through discussion and persuasion. At the same time, there were signs of an incipient development in Critical Theory and of group identity as the primary focus of our attention. Since then, this has been turbo-charged by applied postmodernism, an ideological position that he as an instinctive liberal could not accept. This led ultimately to him helping to found the LGB Liberal Forum.

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