GAY RIGHTS campaigner Peter Tatchell, who had planned to run for the Green Party in next year’s British general elections, has announced he is standing down because of brain injuries sustained during demonstrations in Moscow and Brussels.
“The injuries don’t stop me from campaigning but I am slower, make more mistakes, get tired easily and take longer to do things. My memory, concentration, balance and co-ordination have been adversely affected,” said Mr Tatchell.
He said his conditions were exacerbated in July when he hit his head on a metal handrail while travelling on a bus: “It would not be right for me to seek election if I could not do the job of an MP.”
In 2001, he was badly beaten in Brussels by people close to Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe, when he attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest on him for allegedly torturing homosexuals.
He was also hurt in 2007 by neo-Nazis during a gay march in Moscow.