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The Right to Discriminate

Doesn't this just make your blood boil? The rights of some deluded bible bashing bigot put before the rights of a group with no choice in their lifestyle. This spells very bad things for the United Kingdom. I wonder if someone who refused to wed black couples could also claim religious dogmatism as their defence and win. So now we have a hierarchy in the British legal system. God trumps human rights. Nice!

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Permalink Reply by Jojo Chintoh on July 14, 2008 at 10:28am

That a country as secular as England (a) continues to pawn off 'civil unions' as an acceptable alternative to full marriage equality and (b) backs off even when bigots complain that this half-measure is too much, drives me insane.

Why don't the English speak out more loudly against this?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on July 14, 2008 at 10:38am

Apathy.

Basically most people aren't directly affected (being mostly white
heterosexuals) so they don't give a shit. They don't see that this kind of thing is part of a larger problem (effectively, allowing certain groups to gain exemptions from the law). When they came for the homosexuals.

Religion still has this veneer of respectability, and still the view that religious people should be coddled, protected from criticism, and allowed to discriminate as they see fit......... when really they should be told to go fuck themselves.

We're making progress. We just got rid of our blasphemy law (seriously, it took us until nearly a decade into the 21st Century), and I think this latest incident has got a lot of people angry. In this case I hear Islington council are thinking of appealing the decision. I really hope they do, they'll get a lot of support.

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Permalink Reply by Roy Roberts on July 14, 2008 at 10:31am

wee *Watches as the prelude of Revolt in 2100 starts before my eyes.*

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Permalink Reply by thomas on July 14, 2008 at 12:39pm

Maybe we should encourage/urge Islington council to appeal, by writing to them regarding this issue. They should at least be applauded for the stance they attempted to take against religious bigotry, even if their efforts proved fruitless for the time being.

The contact details are here.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on July 14, 2008 at 12:48pm

There's a facebook groupwith a petition to urge the council to do just that (the petition link was not working when I tried it just now, but it was earlier).

Not that these petitions really do any good. But it only takes a few seconds.

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Permalink Reply by Bradley Smith on July 18, 2008 at 2:59pm

Since when does NOT allowing someone to spew bronze age, mystically-inspired bigotry count as discrimination? She is being asked to to provide a valuable service to the community. If she feels that providing that service conflicts with her religion, then she is more than welcome to find employment in another way. What she is NOT welcome to do is ask that the community conform to her personal values, even though it deprives others of their legally enshrined rights. Is there any other force in society other than religion that is so arrogantly self-righteous as to assume that its dogma should trump basic human rights?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on July 18, 2008 at 3:10pm

UPDATE: Islington Council is going to appeal.

Fuck yeah!

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Permalink Reply by Bradley Smith on July 18, 2008 at 4:08pm

"Lillian Ladele, the woman registrar at the centre of the storm, told the employment tribunal that her Christian belief is so fundamental that she could not conduct civil partnerships for gay couples. It is now reported that she is an unmarried mother.

Part of the tribunal's judgement read: “Ms Ladele is a Christian. Her unchallenged evidence was that she holds the orthodox Christian view that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life to the exclusion of all others and that marriage is the God-ordained place for sexual relations. She could not reconcile her faith with taking an active part in enabling same-sex unions to be formed. She told us that she believed this to be contrary to God's instructions that sexual relations belong exclusively between a man and a woman within marriage.”

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ms Ladele revealed that she is an unmarried mother – having given birth to an illegitimate son when she was 20. This has led to accusations that she was not properly cross-examined at the tribunal about the nature of her religious faith – details of her extra-marital sexual activities were only publicly revealed at the weekend."

Perhaps the appeal should include the following:

"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." - Matthew 7:5

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Permalink Reply by Buffy on July 21, 2008 at 1:47am

But if someone had refused to serve her because she was a Christian she'd be the first to claim "persecution". Hateful sow.

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Permalink Reply by Antonett Ewan on December 8, 2008 at 1:26pm

So we discriminate them to end their discrimination...kind of twisted is it not?

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Permalink Reply by Jared Lardo on July 13, 2009 at 5:07pm

I always thought that the U.S. would collapse and be eaten by Europe and China, but, from the looks of some things in U.K. and Ireland, maybe Europe'll collapse, get eaten by Turkey, Russia, and Saudi Arabian immigrants while the U.S. watches.

Meh, doomsday stories are fun, but useless.

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Permalink Reply by Louis on July 13, 2009 at 6:27pm

This is ridiculous religious exceptionalism.

If I worked there, I would stop handing out marriage certificates to interracial couples. The bible is very clearly against it. I wonder just how long it'd take them to smarten up.