Socialist Resistance : SR42 - February 2007

Homophobia

Gay adoption - the acid test

Liberation or toleration
Mark Findlay

The sudden recent controversy about the Equality Act and exemptions for Catholic and other religion-based adoption agencies has thrown the true attitude of the Blair government to Lesbian and Gay equality into new light.

The Equality Act, due to come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland in April, outlaws discrimination in the provision of goods, facilities and services on the basis of sexual orientation. The realisation that this applies to adoption agencies has thrown the Catholic and Anglican hierarchies into paroxysms of rage.

The Catholic leadership been joined by C of E leaders Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. It’s worth remembering that legally the Church of England is headed by the monarch and is therefore part of the British state. Until recently, bishops were approved by the Prime Minister.

The true nature of much Christian religious teaching is thrown into sharp relief by this. Lesbians and Gay men are just tolerable, but not equal and must be kept away from children, who must be brought up in “normal” nuclear families.

Such attitudes would rightly cause outrage if applied to black people.

Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, argued on the BBC radio 4’s Today programme: "The freedom of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation however well-meaning.". But would he (a black man) say this “Freedom” applies to those who believe that black people should not be able to adopt?

The real strides forward made by Lesbians and Gay men are still limited by ideology and the muddle-headed tissue of exemptions and complicated rules still in place. Civil Partnerships, with exactly the same legal rights and obligations, are still not considered the same as marriage, cannot be legally formalised in a church service and are actually similar to the pernicious “separate but equal” laws that applied to black people under Apartheid.

Rights to childcare have been a real touchstone for Lesbian and Gay rights since the early days of the fight for liberation. The most vicious calumnies about us were, from the earliest days, about how we posed a threat to children and must be kept away from schools. The Thatcher government in the late 80s made its reactionary statement “Section 28” specifically about “promoting” lesbian and gay rights in schools.

We had the right to exist (just), but must be kept away from the “vulnerable” and “impressionable”. And so it goes on with these adoption agencies – their activities seem innocuous and the people who run them have "rights of conscience cannot be made subject to legislation, however well-meaning".

Of course, it would be quite wrong to believe that all Christians and other believers are homophobic. Within the ranks of Labour MPs, Stephen Pound is a Catholic who disagrees with religious exemption, and there are thousands of others who believe that Lesbian and Gay love is as God-given as heterosexual love. It would be a big mistake to drive away religious people who see their religion as encompassing and inclusive and motivates their desire to fight for equality and socialism.

So why is this important right now, and what are the implications?

Well … pretty big, as the government is also busily handing over large parts of the education sector to private institutions, many of which are run or motivated by religious groups. The implication that these, too, might be exempt from “discrimination in the provision …” has far wider implications. Large parts of the school system might be allowed to discriminate – either by simply tolerating homophobic behaviour amongst their students or even banning or expelling LGBT students.

The C of E bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali threatened to withdraw cooperation with the government in several other areas including provision of night shelters and youth clubs. (The thought of officially homophobic youth clubs is nightmarish, given the kind of bullying and intimidation that some of these institutions are known for anyway).

So it is positive that the government in the end decided to stand up against Opus Dei member and Secretary of State for Communities Ruth Kelly, the organized Churches and other bigots who were ambivalent on this question – after a fair amount of lobbying from LGBT activists and their supporters especially in the trade unions. But it is not positive that they hesitated for so long – thus allowing the bigots the space to parrot their nonsense.

An important future focus for the movement will be the legislation to outlaw discrimination against transgendered people promised over the new few months. The alliances which have been strengthened in fighting for this legislation are likely to be needed in ensuring that this does take place and that reactionary forces are not given increased space to whip up hatred and discimination.

Mark Findlay

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