KENILWORTH, 20 MARCH 2007 — Religious groups have invested so much of their efforts and resources into overturning the sexual orientation regulations when they come before the House of Lords on Wednesday that they face humiliation if they fail, says the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA).
Christian pressure groups in the shape of the Christian Institute, the Evangelical Alliance and the Lawyers' Christian Fellowship have gone all out to smash the sexual orientation regulations. They have put misleading advertisements in the national press, they have bombarded MPs and peers with endless letters demanding that the regulations be stopped and they have organised demonstrations among Christians who are now completely hysterical about the issue.
Even the mainstream churches have put their heads on the line. Statements from the Archbishop of Canterbury and assorted Anglican bishops, as well as from the Catholic hierarchy, make clear that the mainstream churches are as determined as the pressure groups to put paid to the regulations.
GALHA’s secretary, George Broadhead, said: “This is the biggest and most united religious campaign we have seen for a long time, and Wednesday – when the regulations go to the House of Lords for final approval – will be crunch day. Baroness O’Cathain, spurred on by the Christian Institute, has tabled a motion to overturn the regulations and the Church of England bishops are threatening to turn out en masse to vote the new law down. If they succeed, they will have severely retarded the push for LGBT equality, and it will spur them on to other actions to push our rights back even further. If they fail, they will have been given the message loud and clear – Britain no longer wishes to be bossed about by clerics. It will be the best argument for getting the bishops out of the House of Lords once and for all. And it will send a message to the bigots that they will not prevail.”