There are many reasons why the likes of UKIP and the BNP dislike the European Union. One of them is that Europe has always been ahead of the UK when it comes to LGBT rights. One March 31st the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a wide-ranging policy statement on those issues. You can read the whole thing here. I particularly liked this bit:

Bearing in mind the principle that neither cultural, traditional nor religious values, nor the rules of a “dominant culture” can be invoked to justify hate speech or any other form of discrimination, including on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity;

Oh look, there’s an election on in the UK at the moment. Guess which party that has allied itself to right-wing extremists in Europe is managing to alienate the LGBT community.