KENILWORTH, 20 MARCH 2005 — If the Catholic Church persists in its attempts to ban gay teachers from its schools in Scotland, then the Government should return the schools to the control of secular authorities, say gay humanists.
Reacting to news that Catholic bishops have drawn up a charter that effectively bans gay teachers in Catholic schools, George Broadhead, secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA), said: “This is nothing short of scandalous. It is an attempt to use public funds to enshrine bigotry into the education system. It is entirely regressive and must not be permitted. What kind of message would such a ban send out to children in these schools: that it’s OK – indeed necessary – to reject and hate their gay friends, relatives and colleagues? It is utterly repellent.”
It is not clear whether the exemptions for religious bodies from the recent Employment Equality Regulations will permit the Catholic Church to carry out its threat, or whether the Church will be breaking the law.
George Broadhead said: “When these religious exemptions from the employment regulations were granted, GALHA warned that this would happen. We said that it was a bigot’s charter. The language being used by Bishop Joseph Devine about gay people is abusive and insulting, I can hardly believe he is making such comments in the 21st century. If this is the kind of prejudice that faith-based schools promote then it is high time they were returned to the local authority control and made secular.”