Memorandum from Mark Withers (CJ&I 225)

 

 

I write with reference to the proposal to include an incitement to hatred of homosexuals offence in the new Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill going through Parliament.

 

I am a secondary school teacher and also a Christian so adhere to traditional orthodox Christian teaching on homosexuality i.e. the that the practice of such a lifestyle is immoral and sinful, but no more so than adultery or sex outside marriage. This does no mean hatred of homosexuals; Christian teaching is that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, however this does not mean condoning peoples behaviour. The gay community has to recognise that there is a huge costuituency of people, both religious and non -religious that hold a similar view yet are happy to tolerate homosexuality, I daresay the majority of the population (yes, even now despite the world of politics and the liberal media). therefore any attempt to silence such perfectly legitimate viewpoints are nothing less than an attack on fredom of speech. We now live in an atmosphere where the so called rights of minorities are impinging on the rights of the majority; this has been particularly marked with the gay community and also notorriously arose with the Incitiemt to Religious Hatred Bill with regard to Moslems.

 

It deeply worries me that our elected representatives seem to sacrifice all too easily liberty and freedom, and this has been an ongoing theme of the New labour government, to appease minorites.

 

I am not against protections for homosexuals; pysical and verbal abuse of such is entirely wrong and that is what you should be worried about, not the legitimate view of millions of people in this country. You really must protect the right of people who hold the traditional view, even robustly so, from pulpit or in normal discourse. Otherwise you are hardly governing for the rights of all in society.

 

I understand there is already sufficient protections in the law for homosexuals to revert to if they are threatened with abuse, why have another one; it seems to me this law is utterly unnecessary and is pandering to a very vociferous minority. There are enough signs for the government to be very circumspect over thei issue: we have had the bizarre story of Lynette Burrows being investigated by the police for casting doubt on the wisdom of gay couples adopting children - this is utterly ridiculous, I would hold exacly the same view myself; we also had the case of the student who caused a police horse 'gay'and got into trouble with the law; in addition there was the example of the elderly Lancashire couple who were investigated by the police merely for wanting to put Christian literasture alongside gay literature in the council. There are numerous other examples.

 

I think this really has to stop, otherwise you are in danger of bringing the lwa into disrepute. Yes, it as wrong to criminlaise homosexuals, but dont go to the other extreme and criminalise those who belive it is wrong, otherwise you have lost the perspective

 

 

October 2007