Tory chair admits
gay stance was wrong

The leader of Britain's Conservative Party says that his party's failure to openly accept gay people in the past was morally wrong--and, he says, it might have contributed to his brother's death. Tory leader Francis Maude told the gay news Web site PinkNews.co.uk, "The gay scene in London in the 1980s was quite aggressively promiscuous, and I think if society generally--and the government I served in--had been more willing to recognize gay people, then there would have been less of that problem." Maude's gay brother Charles died of AIDS in 1993. In the interview published Thursday, Maude also said that he now regrets having voted for the Section 28 legislation banning local government from "promoting" homosexuality, which led to the closing of many gay support groups. Asked about the Tories' reputation, Maude said, "We've been seen for a long time as a party which hasn't been very open to gay people. That's wrong." (Sirius OutQ News)