Age-of-Consent Debacle

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has blamed religionists for the scuppering of the age-of-consent legislation by the House of Lords. This debacle, says GALHA, demonstrates the power and influence which religionists of one sort or another still exercise over the lives of lesbian and gay people.

GALHA spokesperson George Broadhead said: “When proposing her amendment hostile to this legislation during the first debate on the issue, Baroness Young made her Christian motivation clear by declaring at the outset that she was speaking as an Anglican and boasting of the support she had from the Archbishop of Canterbury, former Chief Rabbi Lord Jakobovits, Roman Catholics, and the Muslim Council of Britain. She also had strong support from the intensely homophobic Christian Institute of which she is a patron.

“Nobody reading the speeches in both the House of Commons and House of Lords debates on the issue can fail to notice the regularity with which religious credentials are cited by those speakers who either opposed the reform outright or only tepidly supported it in this particular case, while speaking out against lesbian and gay rights in general. This is in sharp contrast to the speeches in favour of reform made by Humanist peers like Earl Russell.”