Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Synthetic Controversy

Not Saussure has an excellent entry discussing the recent Gay Rights vs Religious Rights issue that’s arisen in the UK over new laws to ban discrimination against gay people. His point is that some of the objections to the law seem fantastical in the extreme, usually a sure sign that a synthetic controversy is being whipped up. 
 
I found it interesting that some of the objections that had been raised had already been dismissed in a previous debate in the House of Lords, and yet they are still circulating in the media (even popping up on the BBC TV News last night) as though they were valid. Obviously, you can’t keep a good meme down.
 
In the event, the attempt to derail the bill was defeated in the Lords by a majority of three to one, so sanity has prevailed. It’s good to see that the UK has now reached a point (in banning discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation) that the Netherlands reached in 1983. Better late than never, I suppose.

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One response to “Synthetic Controversy”

  1. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    I’m not sure I agree with a total ban.  Certainly in terms of employment, chain hotels and gay adoption, or any public enterprise.  But in the case of someone running a B&B out of their own home, they have a right to turn away whom they don’t want.  Perhaps if they were enjoined, and allowed, to advertise that, it may make them think twice, but I won’t argue with their right to choose.  In any case, the religious freedom argument is bogus, it’s all down to their "ick" factor.  Jesus supped with sinners, he didn’t turn them away.  How many of these establishments get ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’ for the weekend, and how are they going to monitor the straight couples who check in and then indulge in buggery or oral sex or golden showers, or anything else that offends them?  Is a child better off with a same-sex couple that wants to live family values or in care?  Ruth Kelly has every right to send her child to private school, and given the state of education in the UK she’s wise to, but she needs to get her little Catholic head wrapped round these issues as well. 

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