Sun newspaper condemned over gay ministers poll
June 2nd, 2010 by Chloe.Setter
Tabloid newspaper The Sun has come under fire for publishing a poll that asked if gay people should be allowed to be cabinet ministers.
The poll, which ran in yesterday’s Sun and was conducted by research firm YouGov, followed the resignation of David Laws from the cabinet over his £40,000 expenses scandal.
Laws, who was serving as chief secretary to the Treasury, quit last weekend after it emerged that he had been claiming expenses on paying rent to his boyfriend.
The Sun followed up the story with the poll that asked three questions, one that said: “Should gay people be cabinet ministers?”
Publication of the poll, which resulted in 89% of the 958 people surveyed saying they actively supported or were accepting of gay ministers, has resulted in a backlash on social media site Twitter.
Around 13% of those polled said it was “a good thing” while 76% did not mind. Of the rest, 5% did not have a view and a further 5% said that gay cabinet ministers were “a bad thing”.
The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association accused the paper of headline-grabbing: “The Sun is clearly trying to whip up hostility. It is heartening that 95% did not think it was bad. Britain is more rational than The Sun would like.”
In a statement following his resignation, the Liberal Democrat MP said: “I grew up at a time when homosexuality had only just been legalised and when most people still thought it was wrong or shameful. I decided, therefore, to keep my sexuality secret, and the further time went on the more difficult it seemed to be to tell the truth.
“When the rules changed in 2006 to prevent MPs from renting from partners, I should probably have changed our arrangements. I could have done so without any financial cost, but getting a mortgage and buying a house together would have meant revealing our relationship - which I was not prepared to do.”
He added: “I feel a bit ashamed not to have set a better example to people who might have expected a bit more leadership from the top.”
Fellow right-wing title the Daily Mail was also criticised after he wrote a column which began with the statement: “To be honest, I’ve always considered all Liberal MPs to be homosexuals unless furnished with concrete proof to the contrary”.
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