U.K. Culture Secretary Asks Gay Groups Not to Judge Her on Votes

Maria Miller, the U.K.’s newly appointed Culture Secretary, urged gay and lesbian groups to talk to her before they judge her on her voting record.

Miller was responding to postings on social networking sites, including one on Facebook attacking her for votes in the House of Commons against adoption by gay couples and fertility treatment for lesbians that has been shared and liked more than 33,000 times.

“I can say very clearly that I have worked for many years in the area of disability and also women’s equality and I am absolutely committed to making Britain a more equal society,” Miller, who was previously minister for the disabled, told reporters during a visit to a business in central London today. “Perhaps looking at voting records isn’t the way to assess what people think about in this world and perhaps actually talking to them is a better way of doing it.”

Miller, a Conservative who was appointed as minister for women and equalities alongside her culture brief in Prime Minister David Cameron’s Cabinet revamp on Sept. 4, was criticized by the main opposition Labour Party over her voting record immediately after her appointment.

“Maria Miller is now in charge of the equalities-unit consultation on equal marriage,” Labour lawmaker Chris Bryant wrote on Twitter, in a reference to Cameron’s proposals to legalize same-sex civil marriages. “She voted against gay adoption.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net