There is a rally today against the Sexual Orientation Regulations. It seems to be rather an own goal to me – an obvious demonstration of why such regulations are needed.
Quite a good response from the TUC about it all here.
UPDATE
And, whilst we are on the subject, Danny Alexander MP should be ashamed of himself. I’m appalled at someone elected as a Liberal Democrat promoting discrimination against gay and lesbian people in churches. Just for the record, here is the LGBT Manifesto that Danny signed up to when standing as a candidate in 2005.
The exemption is an ironic trend in modern legislation about moral principles. ‘Everyone shall have the right to life, except in the following cases…’ I suppose principles, like people, are awkward things.
What Danny describes as his objective is already provided in Part 2 of the Equality Act which deals with discrimination on grounds of Religion or Belief. So Piskies will not be obliged to rent their premises to Baptists, or vice versa. Or perhaps even to the English!
So far as I can see the real worry is that Ruth Kelly is reported in today’s independent to be considering an exemption for religious adoption agencies against much hostility from Labour MPs and other ministers.
Quite worrying when a minister for equality appears to be involved in carving out special arrangements for the continuance of discrimination in this area – equality laws are supposed to promote equality not entrench discrimination.