Tonight there will be an hour long debate in the House of Lords to consider Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Morrow’s motion to annul The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, which came into force on 1 January, and which will also be the subject of a High Court case in March.
Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006
Lord Morrow to move that a Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Regulations, laid before the House on 24 November, be annulled. 3rd Report from the Merits Committee (Dinner break business, 1 hour)
Written Answers in the House of Lords on this topic on 13 December were as follows:
Equality: Sexual Orientation
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require all schools actively to promote homosexual civil partnerships to children from primary school age to the same degree that they teach the importance of marriage. [HL447]
Lord Rooker: No. The regulations are not concerned with what is taught in schools. That is rightly a matter for the Department of Education, Northern Ireland.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require a printing shop run by a Christian to print fliers promoting gay sex.[HL448]
Lord Rooker: No. It would be entirely within the spirit of the regulations for a printing shop run by a Christian to refuse to print fliers promoting gay sex, so long as that printer also refused to print fliers promoting heterosexual sex outside the realm of marriage.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would require a family-run bed and breakfast to let out a double room to a transsexual couple, even if the family consider it to be in the best interests of their children to refuse to allow such a situation in their own home.[HL449]
Lord Rooker: No.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 would make it illegal for a heterosexual police officer, fire fighter or member of the Armed Forces to refuse to join a Gay Pride event promoting the homosexual way of life.[HL450]
Lord Rooker: No.Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they have received representations from Coherent and Cohesive Voice, a network of Christian leaders about the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (SI 2006/439); and, if so, when; how many representations have been received; and in what form.[HL451]
Lord Rooker: We have received no representations from this group.
‘Coherent and Cohesive Voice’. “We have received no representations from this group.” They’d rather advertise in The Times and spread misinformation in the media– I must assume. My theory : to have made an offical representation to HM Governement, they would have had to come out as to their true identity. It seems cowardly and a tad sinisiter that such facelss people shoul;d make such allegations, under cover of the secrecy, afforded them by their C & C V nom de plume. Perhaps the legal people behind it have broken their professional code by this behaviour, or compromised their professional… Read more »
Respectfully inquire as to what the right honorable “Lord Lester of Herne Hill” has up his wazoo? His Lordship seems a tad obsessed!
He was getting the true position clarified and on the record before the Lord’s Debate and vote. I should have said. Thus dispensing with some of the worse misinformation disseminated by fundamentalist. It is a strategic thing, in the service of human rights.
The religious hatred currently being shown by many secularist liberals and gay rights supporters and campaigners especially towards Christians is appalling. It’s ironic for a group of people who claim to know what it was like to be persecuted are now the persecutors, Except their venom and hatred is a 100 times more than anything ever shown to them as far as I can see. Christians have no right to judge anyone as we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God. One day we will all be judged for our sins that includes homosexuals and heterosexuals,… Read more »
But if what you say is true, Simon, then there is no more reason for a Conservative Evangelical Christian guest house owner to discriminate against a gay couple than against someone who owns shares in British American Tobacco or Tesco supermarkets or is guilty of any other ‘sin’ (by which I mean behaviour which the Fathers or Scripture might call into question). The ConsEv response to all this seems to have created a special category of particularly odious sin for gays, which means that their consciences are not to be afforded the same respect as the Born Again President who… Read more »
I know I shouldn’t but the reductio ad absurdum of much ConsEv protest is a cross between Kafka and Python. Devout Vatican watchers can demand that married couples toss their oral contraception into a bin in reception, while poking a long needle into their toilet bags in case of hidden condoms. Those hoteliers of a particularly conservative Orthodox tradition (look at byzantine.net) can insist that guests sign a declaration that they are trying for a family, and if the lady looks to be post-menopausal they should be able to refuse to provide a double bed anyway. Pacifists should demand that… Read more »
David Icke’s posting moves me. It must have been awful for him to witness such goings-on and distress.
I just hope I shall never have to witness these poor Chritians suffering so terribly at the hands of these venomous liberals and unsympathetic gays.
we homos should just be glad we are no longer sent to jail, I ween.