Religion

Late last night Stonewall’s latest amendment to the Equality Bill – to permit civil partnerships to be held in religious premises – was passed in the House of Lords by a majority of 74. The amendment, tabled by Lord Alli, was supported by peers across parties, including former Conservative Party Chairman Lord Fowler and Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford.

‘This further step towards equality is a real victory for religious reason over those Church of England and Roman Catholic bishops who’ve tried to bully other denominations in recent weeks,’ said Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill. Quakers and Liberal Jews were among those denominations which supported the amendment.

During the debate Lord Alli, the only openly-gay peer, said: ‘Religious freedom cannot begin and end with what one religion wants. It has to apply equally to the Quakers as it does to the Church of England and to the Liberal Jews as it does to the Catholic Church.’ The Government opposed the amendment although it permitted its backbenchers a free vote after the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats had offered the same. The proposal was passed by 95 votes to 21 shortly before 11pm, after a lengthy debate.

Read more: House of Lord Yes to Gay Weddings in Church

LGBT groups and teachers alike have expressed disgust at the amendment included in the Children, Schools and Families Bill carried in the House of Commons yesterday. The amendment will allow sex education to be taught in a way that "refects" a school's "religious character".

The PTT secretary George Broadhead said, "Once again the government has kowtowed to religions by allowing faith schools to tailor their sex education lessons to their own beliefs.

"Why should atheist and Humanist parents have to send their children to faith schools and risk having their minds polluted by some of the reactionary teachings of these faiths?

"To echo the words of the British Humanist Association, the consequence of this bill is that it will shift the focus of the law as it applies to faith schools away from the needs of children, towards the religious prejudices of the school, as if this is what the law should really be protecting. Who is education supposed to benefit - the child or the church?

Read more: Anger Over Sex Ed Amendment

The gay Humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) has called for a strong protest to be made when Pope Benedict XVI visits the UK early next year.

The PTT's secretary George Broadhead said: "This pope has shown himself to be paranoid about homosexuality. His opposition to LGBT rights knows no bounds. In his Christmas message last year he declared that saving humanity from homosexual behaviour was as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. This must be the most outrageous and bizarre claim yet made by someone who has already got a well-deserved reputation as one of the most viciously homophobic world leaders on a par with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. The Vatican reinforced its anti-gay reputation by strongly opposing a UN declaration calling for an end to discrimination against gays and the Pope's Christmas messsage provided clear evidence of an obsession about homosexuality which is tantamount to paranoia."

Read more: Gay Humanists Call Pope Protest in UK

The editor of the UK’s only gay humanist magazine has weighed into the debate over calls by two of the country’s leading churchmen for people not to vote for the British National Party (BNP).
 
The Archbishops of both Canterbury and York, Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, say voters should not let the current scandal over MPs’ expenses drive them to vote BNP.
 
In recognising the public’s anger over the Westminster expenses debacle, the two churchmen warned: “This is not a moment for voting in favour of any political party whose core ideology is about sowing division in our communities and hostility on grounds of race, creed or colour.”

Read more: Gay Humanists React to Bishops anti-BNP Call

The TUC will join human rights organisations, academics and faith communities to address the growing problems of homophobia and transphobia, at a conference in London next week - on Saturday 16 May.

The TUC-sponsored conference – Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia and Human Rights – follows up an initial meeting on homophobia in the faith community in 2007, which was supported by 52 organisations and attended by 250 delegates.

The conference aims to build an alliance between people of faith and those concerned with social equality. During the day there will be a discussion on the use of faith to obstruct equality, and debates on loopholes in equality law in workplaces and schools, and the issue of homophobia and transphobia in faith schools.

Read more: Time to tackle homophobia in faith community, says TUC