Do you bite your thumb at me sir?

The last few weeks have seen unprecedented attacks on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Communities. Unprecedented in their ferocity, their lies and their hate. Unprecedented and unwarranted.

But these attacks aren’t coming from the yobs in the street, they are not from people who don’t know any better, indeed they aren’t disenfranchised groups or individuals with a bone to pick, however they are sadly the usual suspects. These attacks are coming from people who preach love and understanding. People who quite wrongly use their religion as a weapon to block equality for LGBT people.

On three fronts, LGBT students and communities face a torrent of organised and systematic attack. And if we dare to stand up and defend ourselves and our rights we are branded militant.

Students’ Unions and Universities standing up to the Pure course.

The Pure course is run by the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship (UCCF), usually through individual Christian Unions. It’s a tutor-led course which amongst other things teaches that homosexuality is “sexually immoral” and promotes the “healing” and suppression of homosexual feelings.

Some unions have rightly chosen to ban this course from their premises and at Edinburgh the University banned the course from other University owned properties. This is a decision which has been since reversed on the proviso that other literature is made available to the participants. A proviso which has been rejected by the Christian Union.

I am a great believer in free speech even when it is used, sadly more often that I would like, to criticise my sexual orientation. But my reasons for standing up to such a course is not because I’m against free speech, it’s in part because of my belief that what comes with free speech is the right to challenge that speech and stand up to it if you think it is wrong. I’m reminded of the early gay rights movement, who would have taken no forward steps if it hadn’t been for free speech. However what is important even more than this is that LGBT students should have the right to study at any institution without fear of intimidation or abuse, the right to be supported by their institution and the right to information and guidance even when its about sexual orientation.

I believe Christians should have the right to say they believe gay sex is a sin, I’ll continue to challenge that. However teaching is not the place for free speech, Pure is a tutor led course with no opportunity to challenge its learning outcomes. Furthermore, public money (universities are publicly funded) should never be used to fund the expression of views which undoubtedly devalue one human being over another.

Well done BLOGS President - Adam Knight for taking on this discrimination, I hope students’ unions continue to stand up to the homophobic teachings of the Pure course because if they do not homophobia will flourish on our campuses and some of the most vulnerable people will be let down.

Goods and services protections for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people.

Over the past few years the NUS LGBT campaign has been lobbying hard for protection from discrimination in the provision of goods and services. We held a lobby of Parliament on the issue two years ago and at the beginning of this year the Government announced protections would be in place by the end of 2006.

Throughout this period LGBT people have argued consistently that there should be no exemptions, why should we as LGBT people face discrimination from any section of the population, you can be sure they would never accept it from us.

We learned over the past few weeks that the proposed regulations have been delayed by Opus Dei Cabinet Minister Ruth Kelly who believes that exemptions should be granted to allow religious groups to discriminate against gay people. This is despite protections which have already been outlined to exempt religious doctrine.

An inflammatory full-page advertisement was purchased in The Times on the 28th of November by a group calling themselves "Coherent and Cohesive Voice", it was shameless in its attack on LGBT people. Citing a number of extreme scenarios, the article demonstrated the huge resources prepared to be spent by those who do not believe in equality for all. To me it showed just how desperate some had become in their goal of excluding gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people from full participation in our society and heightened my resolve to continue to put forward the views of the vast majority of the British public, that discrimination should be wiped out once and for all.

I was proud as I watched Question Time from Belfast where Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain was backed by allies, unlikely and not, in putting forward a robust defence of the published goods and services regulations for the province which will come into effect in January. I was also proud of the majority of the audience who demonstrated their progressive and forward thinking views. Peter’s principled line which will protect LGB people in Northern Ireland from exactly the sort of prejudice being displayed by so many, with no exemptions, is exactly the kind of leadership which must be shown across the UK.

We shouldn’t have to be reminded of what these people want, LGB homeless people turned away from soup kitchens, pupils in faith schools treated as second class, loving gay couples banned from hotels and guest houses across the land. We know this because the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Birmingham and the Church of England Bishop of Rochester told us so, confessing that what they really want is the right to turn lesbian and gay people away from "schools, adoption agencies, welfare programmes and shelters".

Despite the High Court turning down the application to suspend introduction of our new goods and services protections in Northern Ireland those opposed to our equality have fought on. And Tuesday will see another attempt when the House of Lords debates a motion to annul the regulations. We will be contacting leaders of the three main political parties to ensure that peers don’t shirk from their responsibilities to LGBT Communities and pave the way for similar protections across the rest of the UK.

We fought hard to win these protections, but sadly the darkest hour often comes before dawn. Lets redouble our efforts and make sure our voice is heard loud and clear because no amount of resources will ever convince me that our cause doesn’t deserve to be heard.

Adoption rights for same-sex couples in Scotland.

This change was proposed too in the Scottish Parliament, but again the usual and some not quite so usual suspects lined up to display their prejudice and that when it comes to what is in the best interest of the child, their homophobic views come first.

I was shocked when Scottish Nationalist MSP and former SNP leadership contender, Roseanna Cunningham proposed amendments which would wipe out all mentions of same-sex couples, meaning evidence gathered which demonstrated strongly that same-sex couples could offer a safe and stable environment for children would be rendered obsolete. The cross-party Education Committee spent many weeks taking oral and written evidence from a whole spectrum of interest groups including adoption agencies, the LGBT community and religious groups and on this evidence unanimously agreed that same-sex couples should be able to apply to adopt jointly.

The changes were supported buy all the children's and adoption organisations, including the British Association of Adoption and Fostering and Barnardo's, and were also supported by the Church of Scotland. The only organisations that disagreed with this part of the bill were the Catholic Church and the conservative Christian organisation CARE for Scotland.

Barbara Hudson, director of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (Scotland), said: “We understand the Catholic Church’s position but regret that at a time when there is such a need for new parents, that not all agencies are united in a common message. Peoples’ sexual orientation should not be a factor.”

I was also shocked at the lack of political leadership when it came to defending the proposed changes, the Lib-Lab run executive unwilling to put forward a robust defence of the much needed changes.

However I was proud when the amendment was defeated and shown to be nothing more that disgusting homophobic views.

In a world where signs in guesthouse windows saying ‘no blacks’ were rightly banned nearly 40 years ago are some arguing for signs to say ‘no gays’. In a world where people with disabilities are just now getting equal access to businesses do some wish to deny fair access to LGB people? In a world where if its illegal to pay your female employees less than male employees is it ok to sack a teacher, a nurse, a cleaner just because they love someone of the same sex? In our World it’s not ok and we won’t stand for it.

I respect your right to have your faith but now its time for you to respect me in return, all I ask is that you don’t use your faith to take away my rights.

You say you don’t hate gay people, but you don’t want to afford them the rights to live their lives free from discrimination. Live your life without rights? Without dignity? Without pride? I challenge you, because I refuse to.

Reading some of the newspaper columns and letters brings out a common theme, a complete lack of understanding, but there is one thing the religious bigots do get right. They denounce the ‘gay agenda’, they call us ‘uncompromising’ one letter even denounced us as intolerant, to them I say, yes we do have an agenda, yes we are uncompromising and yes we are intolerant, intolerant of the discrimination you argue we should face and uncompromising in our resolve, because when it comes to the rights of LGBT people no argument of exclusion is good enough, we deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect as you and that will always be top of our agenda.

Will we be silenced? No! We will stand taller and fight harder because this isn’t about us as LGBT people wanting anything more than you already have. We want our love to be recognised, we want to be able to walk down the street without fear of attack or intimidation, we want to be part of a family, to work and build careers like everyone else. We want our aspirations and our dreams to be given an equal chance to succeed. All we want is to be treated equally for who we are.

In a media interview Cardinal O'Brien said that giving same sex couples the right to adopt children was ‘one step away from legalising paedophilia and bestiality’. Cardinal you preach love and all we hear is vile hate. I bite my thumb at you sir.

If you would like to know more about sexuality and religion there are a number of social and support groups for different faiths.

Bagels – Jewish LGBT Students email: bagels@ujs.org.uk
Imaan - LGBT Muslims www.imaan.org.uk
Jewish Gay & Lesbian Group www.jglg.org.uk
Lesbian & Gay Christians www.lgcm.org.uk
Metropolitan Community Churches www.ufmcc.com
Quaker Quest www.quakerquest.org
Quest www.questgaycatholic.org.uk

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