Caroline Lucas MP
Caroline Lucas is Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. In 1999, she was elected as one of the
Green Party's first MEPs and served the South East region until 2010, when she was elected as the first Green MP to represent Brighton Pavilion.
Caroline sits on the Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, and is a Co-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fuel Poverty – as well as Vice Chair of the Public and Commercial Services, Sustainable Housing, Animal Welfare, and CND APPGs. She is a member of the APPG for HIV and AIDS.
She has been voted the UK's most ethical politician in 2007, 2009 and 2010 by readers of the Observer, and received Red magazine’s Woman of the Year Award 2010 in the ethical/eco category. She is in the Environment Agency’s Top 100 Eco-Heroes of all time.
Caroline has campaigned on LGBT issues for many years. In her work as an MP and MEP, she has fought for greater equality for LGBT communities in the UK and around the world – and for an end to persecution on the grounds of sexual identity or orientation.
As well as calling on the Government to amend the Equality Act to protect LGBT people from harassment, remove equality law exemptions for faith schools, and refuse visas and work permits to singers who condone homophobia, Caroline has spoken out against the ban on gay men donating blood – a policy which she believes is based on homophobic and stereotypical assumptions.
In response to cases such as that of Pegah Emambakhsh, a lesbian from Iran who came to the UK to escape prosecution against homosexuality after her partner was arrested, tortured and sentenced to death by stoning, Caroline put pressure on the UK Government to make homophobia and transphobia an absolute case for granting asylum.
She has tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament in support of The Justin Campaign and its work in fighting homophobia in football.
Caroline recently joined LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell in Parliament to launch the Equal Love campaign, which aims to challenge the current ban on both gay marriage and heterosexual civil partnerships.
