GALHA Welcomes Government's Protection Of Gay Rights From Religious Bigots

KENILWORTH, 7 MARCH 2007 — The publication today of the sexual orientation regulations in a form that does not give undue exemption to religious groups was warmly welcomed by the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).

In her statement accompanying the publication of the regulations, Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, said: “Our approach will ensure that nobody will be required to act in a way that contravenes their core religious beliefs, but where religious organisations enter into an agreement to provide services to the wider community, on behalf of and under contract to a public authority, the right of lesbian, gay and bisexual people to have equal access to those services comes to the fore. This is in line with the conclusions reached by the Joint Committee on Human Rights, in its recent Legislative Scrutiny report on the Sexual Orientation Regulations.”

George Broadhead, secretary of GALHA, said: “We are extremely pleased that the regulations haven’t been unduly compromised by concessions to religious groups. It also gives us hope that if the Government proceeds with its intention to hand many welfare services over to religious groups, that they will not be able to discriminate in the provision of these services on the grounds of sexual orientation. The Government has obviously come to the conclusion that when there is a clash of rights, gay rights must be put before the rights of the religious.”

The regulations now have to be put before Parliament, but because they are secondary legislation they cannot be amended. They can only be accepted in totality or rejected in totality.