Robert Hampton

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24th January 2011

Angry old woman surprisingly has column in Daily Mail
Posted by at 8.30pm | Gay, In the News | 1 response

Melanie Phillips, not unusually, uses her Daily Mail column today to rail against the “gay agenda”. The inspiration for her ire is a new government plan to make make school lessons more gay-inclusive. She believes the new schools policy is part of a “ruthless campaign by the gay rights lobby”:-

Alas, this gay curriculum is no laughing matter. Absurd as it sounds, this is but the latest attempt to brainwash children with propaganda under the ­camouflage of ­education. It is an abuse of childhood.

Phillips seems to want schools to pretend that gay people don’t exist. However, school children are already very aware of gay people — usually as something to fear, victimise and abuse. The school playground remains a hot-bed of anti-gay bullying fuelled largely by ignorance and intolerance. Education is badly needed to overcome this problem and the government’s plans are a good start. Maybe along the way, these lessons will even infuse gay kids (and many of them will know, or at least be questioning, by the age of 11 or 12) with a tiny bit of self-worth.

It has already worked well for one London school, which claims to have eradicated anti-gay bullying by teaching LGBT history to its pupils. This is not propaganda, it is simply affording gay people their rightful place in society, alongside everyone else.

Melanie Phillips doesn’t stop there, however. She goes on to discuss the recent hotel discrimination case:

The bed and breakfast hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull — who were recently sued for turning away two homosexuals who wished to share a bedroom — were but the latest religious believers to fall foul of the gay inquisition merely for upholding ­Christian values.

Homosexuality is incompatible with Christian values? Someone had better tell the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, who praised the recent Court decision. Excluding people is not a way to uphold Christian values.

Anyway, Phillips has really got the flow going now, and picks up on yet another example of the “gay agenda” — the negative reaction to appointment of an anti-gay doctor to the government Drugs Advisory Board.

For he is also a leading member of the Manchester-based Maranatha Community, which is dedicated to re-establishing ­Christian values in society and which campaigns against gay rights.

Philips makes Dr Raabe sound like a fairly moderate person. However, according to Pink News, he also wrote a briefing document describing homosexuality as “destructive” and associated with disease and drug use. Another paper co-authored by Dr Raabe linked the “gay lifestyle” to paedophilia. In summary, Dr Raabe’s views are not exactly mainstream.

Really, it’s just the same old canard (one that is quite popular with the Daily Mail): the gays are getting special treatment at the expense of others and it is now the “normal” people who are oppressed. If we ever get to the point where heterosexuals are prevented from marrying the person they love, unable to walk down the street holding hands for fear of violent retribution or forced to hide their private life if they want a career in professional sport, then I’ll concede that Melanie Philips has a point. Until then, she is wrong, wrong, wrong.

18th January 2011

Room Service
Posted by at 11.04pm | Gay, In the News | 1 response

Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy wanted to do something that most couples take for granted – spend a relaxing weekend away in a country hotel. However, the owners of the hotel had other ideas, and turned them away because allowing a gay couple to sleep together in a double bed would contravene their religious beliefs.

Today the couple have been awarded compensation by the Court, and quite right too. It is 2011, and this sort of discrimination should be consigned to history, just like the horrible “NO COLOUREDS” signs which could be seen in the windows of many B&Bs not so long ago.

The usual people have been complaining about “persecution” of Christians (yes, the BBC got a quote from the Christian Institute). On Comment is Free, Stonewall’s Ben Summerskill tells them to get some perspective:-

Within the past three weeks, dozens of Christians have been murdered in acts of organised violence in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria. In Pakistan, Sudan and Indonesia hundreds of thousands more live in fear.

They might all have something to say about the fatuous suggestion that two British hotel owners, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, are also being “persecuted” for their faith.

The rest of the article is well worth reading.