Bishop queries why gay rights ‘trump’ others
THE Bishop of Winchester has claimed that the human rights of homosexuals appear to “trump” everyone else’s.
The outburst from the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt came yesterday after new rules requiring adoption agencies to accept applications from gay and lesbian couples were passed by the Commons without a debate.
The senior Church of England bishop, who is a member of the House of Lords, said: “There are elements of these regulations which are contentious and do need very careful scrutiny.
“Because it looks to many of us as if at every point, where there is a serious tension between the human rights of different groups of people, and specifically the human rights of gay people, at every point gay rights trump everyone else’s and that’s really the fundamental problem of these regulations.”
Despite protests from some MPs that the rules had been “railroaded” through the Commons with “extreme and unseemly haste”, The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 was passed by a majority of 210 and will now go to the House of Lords for debate today.
Because the rules effectively form part of the Equality Act, which was passed last year, there was no requirement for a full debate on the floor of the Commons.
The new regulations outlaw “discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities, services, education, the disposal and management of premises and the exercise of public functions on the grounds of sexual orientation.”
They sparked controversy after Catholic adoption agencies said they would close rather than be required to offer babies to same sex couples.
Meg Munn, the minister with responsibility for the sexual orientation regulations, said: “What we have got is people who don’t agree with the regulations, now turning to blame procedure and process.”
A consultation took place which was then extended for five months to allow further discussion, she said.
Source: thisishampshire.net