Christians Plan to Ambush Age-of-Consent Bill

The Anglican peeress Baroness Young is planning a new attack on the Government’s latest attempt to equalise the age of consent for gay men.

The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill which is intended to lower the age of consent from 18 to 16 will come back to Parliament later this week. This time the Government has signalled that it intends to use the Parliament Act to overrule the Lords if there is another attempt to vote the Bill down.

Baroness Young realises that she will not be able to defeat the Bill in its entirety, so her strategy is to try and amend it. She is proposing that the age of consent for anal intercourse (or buggery, as she calls it) will remain at 18 for both heterosexuals and homosexuals. All other sexual acts will be allowed from the age of 16. She is also seeking to “strengthen” the law against adults abusing a position of trust over young people.

Baroness Young is supported in her campaign by the Christian Institute of which she is patron. The CI has been in the forefront of the religious campaign against lesbian and gay rights and has called on its members to lobby peers to support Baroness Young.

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), which plays a leading role in combating religious hostility to gay rights, has called on lesbians and gays to counter this lobby with the utmost vigour.

GALHA Secretary George Broadhead said: “The Government has been ordered by Europe to change this law which so blatantly discriminates against gays, yet these Christian reactionaries with their bible-based prejudice are still determined to thwart it. The lesbian and gay community must mobilise for a final push for equality in this area. Baroness Young and her fellow Christians must not be allowed to interfere with the legislative process and succeed in watering down the Bill. We urge all supporters of age-of-consent law reform to write to their MPs and members of the House of Lords asking them to resist the pressure of the religious lobby.”