How I changed history for thousands of gay and lesbian couples
Michael Salter-Church promised his partner that it would be legal for them to get married one day.
Five years later he was in Downing Street, with his husband, standing next to the Prime Minister.
For those of you who don’t know him, Michael was the Conservative Party advisor who helped turned same-sex marriage from a pipe dream into reality, overcoming rightwing rebellions and religious objections along the way.
He also revolutionised the London Pride event and made it a key tool in his quest for marriage equality.
The Tory Party was one that previously said it would ‘never’ repeal Section 28, the controversial law which banned the promotion of homosexuality in schools that was passed by the party in 1988 under Margaret Thatcher.
But the law was later repealed in 2003 by Labour and the Liberal Democrats after a number of high-profile former Tory ministers tried to block it.
Michael initially joined the party in 2001 as a press officer, but he soon set about trying to persuade Conservatives to embrace pro-LGBTQ+ policies.
‘It was quite tough in the early years,’ Michael told Metro.
‘I was asking, “Why are we not doing something for the LGBTQ+ part of the electorate?”
‘Section 28 was abhorrent. The Tory Party needed to not just talk about change. It really had to show change.
‘It’s not a piece of clothing you put on and take off. It has to become part of your DNA.’
Despite having only been at the party for a short time, Michael’s points were beginning to have an impact on the party.
After Section 28 was repealed, new party Leader Michael Howard endorsed gay civil partnerships a year later in 2004.
But the big change for the Conservatives happened in 2005, when David Cameron became leader of the Tory Party.
Michael said: ‘People like him, George Osborne and Amber Rudd were arguing society moves on, and saying that embracing LGBTQ+ right was the right thing to do.
‘Friends said to me, “You’re never going to do something on equal marriage.”
‘I was like, “I’ll take the bet, watch me.” I think actually they misread where the Tory party leadership was like.
‘The Tory party leadership was younger and more liberal, but more importantly they believed in real equality.’
By 2009, legalising gay marriage had become a huge talking point.
The Liberal Democrats paved the way with the change at first, with the partylaunching a petition called ‘Marriage without borders’ at the Manchester and Reading Pride events.
It then was published online and was garnering huge traction, with the former leader of the party Nick Clegg publicly stating in 2009 his party backed the legalisation of gay marriage.
By comparison, Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his ‘record of delivery’ on equal marriage issues, including civil partnerships, gay adoption and fertility rights for lesbians, but refused to commit to ending marriage inequality.
He told Pink News at the time that marriage is ‘intimately bound up with questions of religious freedom’.
After being promoted to the Tory’s Head of Broadcasting, Michael worked on changing his party’s image among the LGBT community.
He set up David Cameron for interviews with Gay Times and Attitude magazine during the 2010 election campaign.
The result ended with a coalition government of the Tories and Liberal Democrats, with gay marriage high on the agenda and Michael pivoting from communications to policy.
‘I suddenly realised the car turned left and were going through the gates of Downing Street,’ Michael recalled.
‘I was wondering, “is there a doorbell? Do you knock?”
‘But the door swung open and I went in.
‘I was honoured when the Prime Minister asked me to he part of his core Number 10 team and to work on LGBTQ legislation.’
He said knew he had his work cut out for him at the time, but was confident in what he could do.
Michael said: ‘We had committed to considering equal marriage in the manifesto, but it was not 100%.
‘It was still divisive. There was quite a lot of people in the grassroots who did not like the idea at all.
‘But I said to my now husband, Rob, “We’re going to get married”.’
After the election, Labour changed its approach with gay marriage too. New leader Ed Miliband rejected the notion of ‘separate but equal’ and pledged a full throttle fight for marriage equality.
A year later, Cameron formally announced his intention to introduce equal marriage at Tory Party conference in 2011.
Opposition came in from all sides. Crossparty MPs including Conservatives, religious groups and even other liberal campaigners criticised the plans.
‘There were definitely times when I thought “Are we definitely going to stick to this?”‘, Michael recalled.
‘I knew it was tough. People were saying, “We’re letting too much blood run, we’re losing support, we should stop it.”‘
‘The more challenging conversations were with some MPs who were saying “this is not a Tory policy.”
‘There was homophobia involved I think and there was also double standards,’ he said.
We also went to talk to the churches that had concerns.
‘There were also people were supportive of equal marriage but didn’t like the fact it was being done by Conservatives. They were quite grumpy about it.’
Despite Conservative maneuvering, it was the Liberal Democrat Deputy PM Nick Clegg who continued to push the legal change full throttle.
He told publicly rebellious Tories it would be a matter of ‘how, not whether’ same-sex marriage is legalised.
The equal marriage bill was eventually published in January 2013 and faced feisty debate in both the House of Commons and Lords.
The Archbishop of Canterbury said it would undermine family life and dozens of Tory MPs pledged to oppose it.
LGBT groups, however, found inventive and creative ways to win politicians over.
‘The gay men’s chorus would come and sing outside the House of Lords every day,’ Michael said.
‘It was their way of trying to get the peers vote for equal marriage.’
Meanwhile, in his back pocket, Michael had a secret weapon: London Pride.
After World Pride 2012 was staged in London, and was labelled a ‘massive flop’, Michael put together a bid to hold a revamped Pride for the next three years.
He said: ‘It was literally around my kitchen table. We said we should organise it. So we formed a little community interest company. We bid for it and won.’
By the time they achieved that they had five months to put together their first Pride, which just so happened to coincide with the moment the Lords were debating equal marriage.
Michael and the other organisers did not miss their moment to make an impact.
‘We all stood in Trafalgar Square and we chanted for equality.
‘All the placards on the parade were about equality.’
The pressure paid off. The Commons passed same sex marriage legislation by 366 to 161.
With more Tories opposed to same sex marriage than opposed, the bill needed the votes of Labour and Lib Dem MPs to pass.
The Lords followed suit by backing it with a 242 vote majority.
Although 133 Tory MPs rejected same sex marriage, the mood had clearly changed within the party.
This was no more evident then at the Conservative Party Conference the very next year, Michael said.
When a constituency association head stood up to criticise equal marriage to the PM’s face, ‘he was basically booed by the rest of the room to sit down.’
‘It showed how far the Tory party had gone and the pragmatism of the Tory party,’ Michael said.
‘Most people had realised that it felt good. People were actually congratulating MPs for doing the right thing.’
It also meant Michael could fulfill his promise to his partner Rob.
They married in 2015 in Devon, and had a reception for staffers and family in Number 10 the same year.
Michael recalled: ‘I never thought as a child growing up I would see my parents, my brother, sisters and Rob’s mum and dad and his siblings in Downing Street with the Prime Minister and it all being totally okay.
‘No one batted an eyelid that here were two guys who were going to get married.
‘Compare that to when people were hiding their sexuality because of Section 28. What David Cameron and Nick Clegg did was ground-breaking.
‘I have stood on the shoulders of giants who were out their campaigning at the hardest possible times.’
Michael has not stopped working on LGBTQ+ equality, rights and safe spaces despite no longer working in government.
He ran Pride in London until 2021, growing it into London’s third biggest annual one day event.
About a million people cross the footprint of the event each year, and one year London Pride bigger than New York’s.
‘Pride isn’t just a celebration. Pride has always been a protest movement,’ he said.
‘My responsibility was building ladders to help people up.’
Michael also travelled to Belfast Pride to continue the drive to bring equal marriage to Northern Ireland, which eventually happened in 2020.
He has since worked for the world’s biggest communication companies Openreach, where he established the organisation’s pride network.
He also has been promoting workplace inclusivity as a trustee at the National Trust and as Chair of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London.
‘Progress isn’t linear, that’s why we will have to keep up the fight,’ is how Michael said.
‘And it is a fight. It is a fight against people who actually want to make sure that you can’t live your life as fulfilling as possible.’
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