KENILWORTH, 18 OCTOBER 2004 — The Anglican Church is creating a fantasy world in which gay people are either evil or unworthy of participation as full citizens, says the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).
Reacting to the publication of the Windsor Report, GALHA Secretary George Broadhead, said: “The Anglican Church is engaged in a debate that is not only damaging its own image, but is creating hostility and mistrust of gay people in wider society.”
Mr Broadhead says the debate has been carried on as though gay people were “some abstract entity without feelings” that could be insulted, patronised and scapegoated with no consequence.
“In fact it is very dangerous to portray gay people as being either evil or in some way unworthy of full participation in society. Platitudes about ‘hating the sin but loving the sinner’ are no longer acceptable. They can no longer expect gay men and women to live lives of loneliness and isolation.”
Terry Sanderson, a columnist on Gay Times magazine, backed up George Broadhead’s comments with an attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury: “Rowan Williams is a coward who doesn’t have the courage of his own convictions. When he was appointed, it was clear that he was personally gay-friendly, but now he seems to have thrown his lot in with unpleasant evangelicals who think gay people are ‘lower than dogs’ (Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria) and who are using gay people ruthlessly in a power struggle within the church. Well, it’s time for gay Anglicans to find their backbones and refuse to allow themselves – and the rest of us – to be used in this way. Gay Anglicans – and there are thousands of them – should make themselves known, and fight back against this dehumanising depiction of gay people as being unfit to serve the church to which many have devoted their lives.”
Mr Sanderson said that, because of its establishment, the Church of England’s policy was important even to those who have no religion. “With 26 bishops in the House of Lords these people are making laws that affect us all. The bishops have already done their bit to try to scupper the Civil Partnership Bill. They got big exemptions from the workplace discrimination law so that they could continue to kick gay people out of jobs. This is not theoretical discrimination, and the hatred being expressed by bigots from Africa, Asia and America who have gathered in London to discuss this report is deeply offensive.”