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Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
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London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
99
Tory MP Nadine Dorries: 'The gay marriage bill is taking the sex out of marriage'
89
Philip Hammond: 'No great demand for gay marriage and it's upsetting vast numbers of people'
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Government to consider abolishing civil partnerships or opening up to straight couples
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Bret Easton Ellis slams GLAAD and says gay basketball player Jason Collins treated like a 'baby panda'
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US Radio host: Gay news websites are covered with porn that is turning teens gay
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Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather tells Catholic newspaper 'I never went into politics to tackle equal marriage'
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Tory MP David Burrowes: 'I'm not anti-gay; I'm just pro-marriage'
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Tory MP David Burrowes: I only want a referendum on same-sex marriage so I can defeat the government's bill
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Robert in S. Kensington 881
Eddy 394
Jock S. Trap 273
bobbleobble 262
D.McCabe 240
Rehan 239
rapture 193
Ray123 188
Midnighter 177
SteveC 172
A serious case of “Thin end of the wedge”.
Considering something like 80%+ Americans claim to “believe in God”, that basically leave the entire homophobia and equal rights standards open to abuse.
It puts belief above fact, and that is simply wrong.
I hope all the people of Kansas are signing up to the military then in order to protect their religious freedoms from those who would seek to destroy them. They wouldn’t want to allow the LGBT people they oppose to do that for them now would they?
*sigh*
1 step forward, 2 steps back…
Easy to combat. Form and register a religion that preaches taxes should not be paid. Watch Kansas backtrack.
Personally, I’ve always been in favor of Lawrence seceding from Kansas.
As an atheist, it is against MY beliefs to support people who discriminate based on their beliefs.
atheism is not a religion
It’s a system of belief (or non-belief). Which system of beliefs do we give credence to in this case? Does a Christian belief trump a Jewish belief? I am a Pagan and my belief system does not include discriminating against LGBT, but it does have strong beliefs against proselytizing. Should I be able to get sanctions against Jehovah’s Witnesses?
religion is mainly characterized by belief in the existence of deities.
@kane…
…However it is a belief that the Abrahamic cults are so much hokum.
reality
i don’t think it works like that
@kane..
..”i don’t think it works like that” ………….really? Who says?
Jan Pauls should be in the Republican Party! This is such a backward and worrying step.
Civil liberties should out weigh the religious ones. How many of those people who claim to be religious actually follow the preachings 100%? None of them I would guess
So Kansas is now officially a theocracy.
Toto, I’m glad we’re not in Kansas.
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” just became more poignant.
Curious to know what will happen when the KKK claim their religious freedoms.
Or their mirror organisation, the Nation of Islam.
as long as their religious freedoms don’t go beyond discrimination of homosexuals (especially black ones) it shouldn’t be a problem
hopefully thanks to US supreme court this law wont last long
Long enough to do a lot of harm.
This Kansas state bill if it ever passes into law will be ruled unconstitutional by the US federal courts as a denial of Equal Protection under the US Constitution.
You’re absolutely right about that. And it will be satisfying to see that happen
They obviously haven’t thought through the implications, they are simply blinded by animosity towards gay people.
The USA really is a backward hellhole isn’t it?
It’s terrifyiong to think that a primitive place like the US has nuclear weapons.
No, that would be Japan
Did you subtract the national debt?
Indeed they may be, but the place is crawling with religious loonies who believe that electric light bulbs are the work of Lucifer!
Absolutely disgusting. This makes those who support this savages and evil. They are decent human beings that’s for sure.
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No one should have this discrimination forced on them esp by people who choose their religious lifestyles.
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Shameful!
The right to religeous hate. Nobody is asking them to be gay, their right to believe what they want to believe is not being attacked. They just demand the right to persecute those their religion condemns. The USA is such a Fxxxed up country, who in their right mind would ever want to live there.
Courtesy of Tom in US:
In the last 3 months..
1) The Bishop of Belize has gone onto the mass media of Belize to advocate criminalization of Gay persons.
2) The Catholic Archbishops Conference of Nigeria advocated in the mass media in Nigeria and the Vatican for legislation to jail persons witnessing a same sex marriage ceremony to 10 years in prison (aka, “jail the Episcopalians bill”), and mandates forming the Gay Discussion Group of Lagos result in 10 years in Nigerian prisons.
3) Cardinal Sarah of Guinea and Cardinal Turkson of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace have both condemened calls for an end to discrimination against Gays and have questioned whether Gay persons are human rights.
4) The spokesperson for the Roman Catholic Church in Albania, has issued a call for the first LGBT protest in Albania to be banned.
Zambia’s Catholic represnetative on the Zambian “Christian” lobbying group also defended criminalization of Gay Persons. (continues with many more).
A pattern of global persecution of gays by the church. Modifying perhaps to what they can get away with in each country?
hopefully the Islamics will recognize the christian crusades were essentially the catholic crusades that killed tens of millions of muslims.
Pray to Jesus and Mohammed that the muslims will deliver a few trucks of the rigtht stuff to the vatican.
Wouldn’t this contravene the separation of church and state?
It gives church superiority over the state.
Stupid law made by stupid people. Faith can be neither measured no proven sincere, setting a precedent by allowing it to be used as a legitimate reason to evade the law is inviting an utter train wreck.
As an atheist I do, of course, sneer at those who demand a political mandate to be a discriminatory. Are they so insecure in their beliefs that they must demand a right to bully? Pathetic.
Hate and discrimination are religious rights.
Apparently.
“If Governor Brownback takes this course of action, then any US citizen can veto anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT people…”
No. That is not correct on so many levels.
First, it has nothing to do with vetoing laws. Please look up veto (and, no I’m not asking for a Wiki reference to veto. I’m pointing out that this reporter doesn’t understand the word, or the bill.)
Second, if passed, this law would have no effect outside of Kansas. There are a lot of US citizens who are not in Kansas and a whole lot of other states which do not have to adhere to laws passed in Kansas.
It would be interesting to see how the courts would handle this law. Does Romer actually apply since this law doesn’t explicitly single out sexual orientation? What about it Mr. Brocklebank. Can you explain this in the context of Romer?
Technically you are right, but I think he meant a personal veto as in ” I don’t have to obey this law as I disagree with it”
Words have meaning and these are (legally) technical issues. Pink News, as any other legitimate news outlet, has a responsibility to get it right.
So in Kansas one can be left to die because a nurse or doctor may refuse to treat you because you being Gay is against their religious beliefs. Why does thsi not surprise me, Kansas being the armpit of America. However this law works both ways, so the bigots can be turned away by anyone Gay who provides a service. I foresee fun times in Kansas. BTW I was surprised to read some mention of a University …In Kansas?… really?, or is that what the hicks call the local primary school.
Unfortunately we tend to have more scruples than religious wingnuts.
This law will allow discrimination against gays and lesbians just because they exist. The Federal government needs to step in, and put an end to this idiocy. A federal law that trumps their state law is necessary to protect LGBTs. For this can set a dangerous president in law, allowing other states to follow, by example.
A dangerous president?
I suggest something like:
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
It doesn’t seem to have stopped them in the past.
This ‘law’ is patently unconstitutional since it allows ‘religion’ to trump civil laws and civil rights…even if it passes, it’s demise is certain. I believe that Brownback was one of the US Senators who travelled to Uganda with Scott Lively and was instrumental in crafting the Ugandan “Kill the Gays” bill for the bigoted Ugandan government…..now he’s governor of Kansas, a land well known for bigotry…..
Really? Do you have a reference for that? I haven’t heard it before.
Oh I see he had ties to Lou Engle but has tried to distance himself from his views on Uganda, so not sure you are correct there.
Another nail in the coffin for America now that they are trying to pass a law that makes it legal to hate.
It is legal everywhere to hate.
Make no mistake, those running the C4M campaign wouldn’t hesitate to support such a law in the UK, along with a lot of Tories and BNP followers. We’re not so far removed from what is happening in Kansas looking at the hateful rhetoric coming from the right wing of the Tory party and their religious allies who want to kill equal marriage for gay couples. Mob rule isn’t just an American phenomenon. That’s exactly what C4M and their religious supporters are all about, imposing a religious belief and wielding tyranny over one specific group of people and the entire country as a whole. It has NO place in the UK, ever.
I wouldn’t be too worried about the UK, since all major parties are in favour of equality. However, Americans ( through NOM etc) use anti-discrimination measures here and elsewhere to frighten less enlightened folk in the US and beyond, by staging a victim scenario. It’s all in the recently disclosed documents.
I suspect that’s why certain cases are pursued here and in Europe with no chance of success – because they look even more like victims to the wingnuts over there, and helps them pass laws like this. It could be why they get American funding perhaps.
Dreadful. This is Kansas living up to the worst stereotypes about it.
The best thing about Kansas is it’s a good place not to be in.
And Dorothy needs to have a serious think about finding happiness in her own back yard.
I’d play them at their own game.
I’d be a member of the Church of the Wholly Bigoted and discriminate against anyone who wasn’t Just Like Me…
this just shows they think just like the topeka KS group called the westboro baptist church.
Who celebrate happily at the murders of gay people and our troops who died trying to protect our freedom
Some parts of xtianity are our own version of islam.
This proposed law is dangerous – especially as Kansa is home to the Westboro Baptist Church. What America needs is a constitutional amendment which will completely separate church from state and prevent religion from being involved in future legislation.
So, as an atheist, if I owned a business or rental I should be able to not hire or fire or rent to a Christian or any other religion because they do not believe the way I do? Maybe it is time to start that religion I have been thinking about and then I can be protected when I want to be a bigot.
According to the Bible, slavery is okay, so would that mean a true, cherry-picking, Christian can acquire slaves in the way described in the ‘good book’? Or would be more far-fetched than discriminating people because of their sexuality?