Gay UK Labour councillor Philip Normal has resigned following his history of offensive Tweets targeting Muslims, Black people and the Trans community coming to light.
Normal announced, “I have today resigned as a Lambeth councillor and a Lambeth Labour candidate for Oval ward. I want to apologise again to everyone who I have caused deep hurt and pain to due to my past social media posts.”
The Tweets, dating from 2011-2015, contained numerous uses of a pejorative term for Trans people, made numerous negative comments about the Muslim community and offensive sexual comments about Black people.
https://twitter.com/nishat76/status/1481027129441669123?s=20
Normal stated, “Reading them now I am horrified and deeply disappointed in myself. They are clearly offensive and discriminatory. They do not reflect my views and values today.
“These messages were written before I was active in the Labour Party. Since being elected as a local councillor, I have been a dedicated campaigner for equality and against homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, Islamophobia or any other form of discrimination.”
Last year, Normal helped raise half a million pounds for UK HIV charity the Terrence Higgins Trust with a range of t-shirts inspired by the ‘La’ comment in It’s A Sin.
extremely disappointing https://t.co/WgdpmTBsAe
— olly alexander (@alexander_olly) January 13, 2022
Philip Normal had previously made history when he became the first elected mayor in the UK openly living with HIV. At the time he had said the reaction to his appointment “highlights the shame and stigma that has been associated with HIV for far too long.”
Claire Holland, leader of the Lambeth Labour Group, released the statement, “I deeply regret, and I share, the hurt caused in our community by this incident. Yet I know that sorry is not enough. Many in our community continue to experience racism and are exposed to discrimination in their daily lives.
“There is a great deal that we must do to reach out to our communities: to listen, understand, and earn back their trust – which I am absolutely committed to doing.”
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