GBLT news snippets and a case to watch
Nov. 4th, 2009 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessFirst of all some good news: Scotland is going to give Lesbians equal IVF rights to heterosexual women. Excellent - lesbians have as much worth, skill and ability as women and mothers as heterosexuals. About time this homophobic assumption that our families and our abilities as parents are worth less than heterosexuals.
The Catholic church, naturally, is vehemently opposed. Their spokesman said:
“frivolous waste of money on people who have chosen a lifestyle that is incompatible with having children.”
No surprises there - I’m told the homophobia that seems to so dominate the Catholic church is the minority - I have my doubts since so much of the organisation is universally and uncompromisingly homophobic. I am becoming ever more thankful that the Catholic church becomes increasingly less relevant with every passing year
Then there’s the case of Lillian Ladele, the Islington registrar who decided she would only do her job (providing civil marriages) when it fit her RELIGIOUS beliefs.
I wrote about this before when she won her Employment Tribunal in an act of supreme silliness that was wonderfully lampooned here. Basically, Ms. Ladele, a civil registrar, wants to only legally ratify marriages (you know, her JOB) that agree with her religious beliefs. Thankfully for most of the nation, despite the many civil marriages in the UK that should be in conflict with her religious beliefs (marriages of other religions, marriages of people who divorced, marriages of the non-religious, any marriage she is called to make legal that hasn‘t been performed in a church by a member of the clergy) she really only cares about us nasty homos marrying.
Anyway, it seems the council appealed and the Employment Appeal Tribunal agreed that having all NON-RELIGIOUS CIVIL marriages subject to Ms. Ladele’s (or any other registrar for that matter - can you imagine the fuss is a fundamentalist Muslim registrar refused to marry women who weren’t attired to his standards of propriety?) religious test would be rather silly and reversed the decision.
She is now appealing again and it’ll be interesting what the result is. Her winning could be an interesting and worrisome precedent. Let us wait and see if they decide that:
“Perhaps Ladele can reconvene the tribunal and tell them that, as a Christian, she objects to all secular marriage ceremonies and therefore cannot, onaccount of her religion, officiate at any of them. To make her do so would be discriminatory, as would sacking her. She has the human right to be a marriage registrar and refuse to sanction all secular marriages; to just sit at her desk playing online Sudoku all year while feverishly rubbing her crucifix." - Rod Liddle
Is a sensible position
The Catholic church, naturally, is vehemently opposed. Their spokesman said:
“frivolous waste of money on people who have chosen a lifestyle that is incompatible with having children.”
No surprises there - I’m told the homophobia that seems to so dominate the Catholic church is the minority - I have my doubts since so much of the organisation is universally and uncompromisingly homophobic. I am becoming ever more thankful that the Catholic church becomes increasingly less relevant with every passing year
Then there’s the case of Lillian Ladele, the Islington registrar who decided she would only do her job (providing civil marriages) when it fit her RELIGIOUS beliefs.
I wrote about this before when she won her Employment Tribunal in an act of supreme silliness that was wonderfully lampooned here. Basically, Ms. Ladele, a civil registrar, wants to only legally ratify marriages (you know, her JOB) that agree with her religious beliefs. Thankfully for most of the nation, despite the many civil marriages in the UK that should be in conflict with her religious beliefs (marriages of other religions, marriages of people who divorced, marriages of the non-religious, any marriage she is called to make legal that hasn‘t been performed in a church by a member of the clergy) she really only cares about us nasty homos marrying.
Anyway, it seems the council appealed and the Employment Appeal Tribunal agreed that having all NON-RELIGIOUS CIVIL marriages subject to Ms. Ladele’s (or any other registrar for that matter - can you imagine the fuss is a fundamentalist Muslim registrar refused to marry women who weren’t attired to his standards of propriety?) religious test would be rather silly and reversed the decision.
She is now appealing again and it’ll be interesting what the result is. Her winning could be an interesting and worrisome precedent. Let us wait and see if they decide that:
“Perhaps Ladele can reconvene the tribunal and tell them that, as a Christian, she objects to all secular marriage ceremonies and therefore cannot, onaccount of her religion, officiate at any of them. To make her do so would be discriminatory, as would sacking her. She has the human right to be a marriage registrar and refuse to sanction all secular marriages; to just sit at her desk playing online Sudoku all year while feverishly rubbing her crucifix." - Rod Liddle
Is a sensible position