Sunday, March 25, 2012

Church leaders 'fan the flames of homophobia', says Equalities Minister

Lynne Featherstone, the Equalities Minister, has called for an end to "inflammatory" language by opponents of same-sex marriages, vowing gay unions would be law by 2015. 

Miss Featherstone said religious leaders had a responsibility not to "fan the flames of homophobia" in their criticism of the Government's move to consult over same-sex marriages.

The Liberal Democrat minister, who made the comments in an interview with the Independent, launches the consultation exercise today.

She gave a "cast iron guarantee" that civil gay marriages would be law by the next general election despite the strength of opposition from church leaders.

"There is no rolling back whatsoever," she said. "The essential question is not whether we are going to introduce same-sex civil marriage but how."

In a fierce attack on plans to legalise gay marriage, the UK's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Keith O'Brien described it as an "aberration" and compared it to slavery and abortion.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he said: "Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalise slavery but assured us that ‘no one will be forced to keep a slave’. Would such worthless assurances calm our fury? Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human right? Or would they simply amount to weasel words masking a great wrong?”

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Miss Featherstone rejected fears that a change in the law would mean the church would come under pressure to accept religious marriages.
Discussing the language used by critics, she said: "It adds nothing to the debate. It inflames.
On these issues, we have a responsibility in leadership positions to make sure we don't fan the flames of homophobia. I totally respect all of the religious views and understand they are strong and genuinely felt. But to use such inflammatory language does not help the debate and does not help their cause."
She added: "I don't want to see any polarisation between religious beliefs and gay rights. It is not a competition. It is not legal and it will remain not legal to marry people of the same sex on religious premises," she said.