Minister for Equalities Lynne Featherstone, who attended last year’s LGBT History Month pre-launch and the Rugby league match where Sheffield Eagles wore Schools OUT Tackle Homophobia shirts, has lost out in the cabinet re-shuffle. Featherstone was an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage and at the Eagles match she announced the launch of the LGBT Sports Charter, which every major sports body has now signed.
The Equalities Office has now been taken out of the Home Office and moves into the Culture Ministry, headed by Tory MP Maria Miller, whose voting record on LGBT rights is not good. She voted against the repeal of Section 28 in 2003 and against the Gender Recognition Bill in 2004, against the Domestic Violence Bill (which included same sex couples as cohabitants) in 2004, and in favour of the Bill demanding independent abortion advice in 2011. (Source: The Public Whip)
David Laws returns to parliament as Minister for Education, but Sarah Teather has lost her post as minister for Children and Families.