Michael Cashman
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Michael Cashman (born December 17, 1950 in London) is a former British actor, now a Labour politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands constituency since 1999.
As an actor, he is possibly best known for his role as Colin Russell in BBC TV's EastEnders – a character famous for being the first gay man to kiss another man in a soap opera in the UK: he also played Mike Wallace in The Sandbaggers. He was also in the Doctor Who story entitled Time-Flight.
He is open about his homosexuality and regularly comments on government policy decisions relating to sexual orientation. He registered a civil partnership with Paul Cottingham, his partner of over twenty years, on 11 March 2006. He is also an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Patron of The Food Chain, the London-based HIV charity.
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[edit] Politics
In the European Parliament he is Labour spokesperson on human rights.
A member of the Civil Liberties Committee, Michael Cashman has been a rapporteur on several key initiatives including an important initiative on funerals of those who die in third countries - an issue he was motivated to act on after the death of his own father.
In the Petitions Committee, where he is first vice-chair, Michael Cashman has been working on the so-called Spanish Land Grab crisis[1]. Thousands of foreigners who have purchased homes in Spain face losing their homes because of unscrupulous land developers who built on land not earmarked for residential usage.
He is a trenchant critic of discrimination against minorities within the European Union. He has been leading a cross-party coalition to tackle the rise in homophobia throughout Europe. He has in the past supported the gay pride march in Warsaw, which he attended[2]. He is also the President of the European Parliament's Intergroup on gay and lesbian issues. Cashman is a member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
In 2007, in recognition of his efforts, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Staffordshire for his human rights work[3]. He was, on the same year, elected MEP of the Year for Justice and Fundamental Rights by his peers [4].
Cashman's record in the Labour Party - opposition to Ken Livingstone's candidacy for Mayor of London and personal loyalty[citation needed] to Margaret McDonagh - suggests he sits on the Labour right.
[edit] Equity
He is the treasurer of Equity and led the campaign to obtain pension rights for members.
[edit] Trivia
| Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- He was born 3 weeks prematurely, partially due to his mother defending his father in a street fight.[citation needed]
- He appeared in a West End production of Oliver when he was 12 and later took the lead role. He performed for future American president Richard Nixon.
[edit] External links
- Michael Cashman's web site
- OpsRoom.org - The Sandbaggers information site
- Michael Cashman IMDB entry
- Profile on European Parliament website
- European Parliament Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights
Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with trivia sections from June 2007 | Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | British television actors | British soap opera actors | Members of the European Parliament from the United Kingdom | Labour Party politicians (UK) | Actor-politicians | People from London | Gay actors from the United Kingdom | Gay politicians | LGBT politicians from the United Kingdom | 1950 births | Living people
