The
NSS has come out forcefully against the proposed dilution of equality
legislation in Northern Ireland. And who is driving the proposal? Why
the usual array of Protestant and Catholic religious bigots, of course.
The bigots are trying to claim that their religious "sensibilities"
(read "prejudices"), should take priority over the rights of gay people
to be treated the same as other citizens. This simply will not do.
Equality legislation, as it stands, cuts both ways. A gay doctor
refusing to treat Christian patients would, quite rightly, fall foul of
the law. An atheist bus driver who refused to accept religious
passengers also. Besides, we have to draw a distinction between firmly
held beliefs and innate qualities like sexual orientation, skin colour,
disability and so on. Gay "sensibilities" should always trump religious
or political ones.
As the NSS rightly says, providing goods and services in the
secular public sphere, is a commercial transaction, not a personal
endorsement of someone's lifestyle or innate characteristics, so there
can be no conflict between providing goods and services to gay people
and believing that gay people are "flawed" or "sinful". We must not
allow underhanded bigots with hidden right-wing agendas to unravel our
hard won equality in the UK.
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