Don Horrocks responds to Meg Munn's letter about Anti-discrimination law.
01 December 2006
Dear Sir,
We commend Meg Munn’s aspiration of seeking a fair balance between protecting both religious and LGB people. A major challenge is that most religious traditions are deeply committed to lifestyle values and beliefs that set boundaries of sexual activity to within heterosexual marriage.
Whether people agree with such religious perspectives or not, it is reasonable that as a matter of conscience they should not be forced by the law to endorse or promote behaviour they regard as fundamentally incompatible with these beliefs. It is Meg Munn’s task to ensure that one group’s equality does not become another’s inequality.
Yours faithfully,
DR DON HORROCKS
Head of Public Affairs at the Evangelical Alliance
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In response to the letter below.....
Sir,
The Government is seeking to strike a balance between protecting the rights of religious groups and preventing discrimination against lesbian, gay and bisexual people. This is a Government, and country, that has a proud record of tackling discrimination wherever it exists. But it is also a country that has a proud record of respecting people from all faiths and none.
No one is proposing that schools will have to promote homosexuality or that a priest will have to bless same-sex couples. But at the same time, it is wrong for gay teenagers to be refused emergency accommodation after being thrown out of their family home on the ground that they had chosen to tell their parents about their sexuality, or for lesbian and bisexual people to be denied access to essential healthcare.
MEG MUNN
Deputy Minister for Women and Equalities
Media Contact:
Bill Shaw
Evangelical Alliance
020 7207 2115
b.shaw@eauk.org
Notes to editors:
The Evangelical Alliance UK, formed in 1846, is an umbrella group representing over one million evangelical Christians in the UK and is made up of member churches, organisations and individuals. As part of a movement ‘uniting to change society’, the Alliance promotes unity and truth, acts as an evangelical voice to the state, society and the wider Church, and provides resources to help members and other evangelicals live out their faith in their communities.
