EHRC Vs God: Nobody Knows Anything

It's difficult to know quite where the Equality and Human Rights Commission stand on the "competing freedoms" of The Gays and The Godbotherers.
Mainly because the EHRC has issued a series of contradictory statements since June.
There's a blog giving a handy overview of their vacillations by Nelson Jones on the New Statesman's website today.
There's a consultation document on the EHRC website - where they also ask what you think.
Might be an idea if they decided what they think.
Fagburn keeps vacillating himself.
Part of me doesn't really give a flying fuck if some fruitloop wants to wear some ancient death cult symbol at work.
But all you were asked to do was wear it under your uniform - what is problem?
If some homophobic bigot doesn't want to conduct civil partnership registrations?
A colleague will cover, so it's not quite the same as being turned away from a guesthouse.
And if a homophobe says he doesn't want to give a gay couple relationship counselling?
I really wouldn't want his advice in the first place.
But then again, why don't you all just SHUT UP AND DO YOUR FUCKING JOB?
The only newspaper that's taken much of an interest in all this is - surprise! - The Daily Mail.
Today they claim;
'Equality quango's two-tier law for Christians that allows crosses at work but upholds gay rights'
In case you haven't noticed, like the Express, the Mail hate the EHRC; "Equality? Human rights!? BOO!"
But this is (sort-of) what the EHRC are proposing in their consultation document above.
They are against "discrimination" where Christians have been told they can't wear (visible) crucifixes at work.
But there will be no "right" to opt-out of providing a service to homos - such as conducting a partnership ceremony, or giving counselling.
Nothing has been set in stone - it's a consultation document.
Knowing the EHRC they'll probably change their mind a few times in the next two weeks.
And the final decision will be made not by them but by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Christian nutters are loving all this palaver, of course - their religion is basically one big collective persecution complex.
Hence those stupid crosses they insist on wearing with the naked dude on.

Daily Express: Oh Happy Day!

"THE watchdog set up to combat discrimination in the UK constantly talks Britain down and should be scrapped, a damning new report reveals today.
"The Equality and Human Rights Commission peddles flawed philosophies and costs too much, the independent think-tank Civitas says..."

Daily Express.
And trying to combat discrimination is a bad thing?
Jeez.
Oh, and the EHRC doesn't "face the axe".
This is a Daily Express front page - file under fiction.

Thought For the Day: Evan Davis

"I think we have to tolerate other people's feelings. In the great spectrum of things, I don't think discrimination against gay men, or being barred from bed and breakfasts or pubs, is very prevalent.
"Put it this way: compared to most of the gay people I know, I am way to the other end of the spectrum in believing that people have a right to be bigoted. It would be unfair if gay people were denied legal rights that other people have but my libertarian self is big enough to say that there are some rights there. I don't know where we draw that line but people do have a right to say what they want happening in their house.
"[He is visibly conflicted on the point, aware of his own privilege. He doesn't want to be an] Uncle Tom who doesn't know you're a victim.
"But there's a statistical problem that arises here. It's the Ali G line: 'Is it cos I is black?' Now supposing you are black, or gay, or short, or some status that is perceived as disadvantageous.
"If you fix upon that status you will then make the statistical mistake of viewing the random knocks that anybody has in their life and assuming they're because you are black or gay."

Evan Davis, interviewed in The Evening Standard.
Philosophy as economics - Get 'er!

• Evan Davis presents Panorama: Breaking Into Britain on BBC1 tonight at 9pm.

Brighton (Hove Actually): Bigots Welcome Here

"A lesbian couple are taking legal action against a hotel after they claimed they were turned away for being gay.
"Rebecca Nash, 22, and Hope Stubbings, 19, said they booked a double room at the Brunswick Square Hotel in Brighton by telephone.
"But when they arrived they were told by the manager that no rooms were available and that the hotel only accepted straight couples and families.
"A spokesman for the human rights group Liberty said the women were then ushered out of the hotel by the manager who became increasingly aggressive towards them..."

The Argus, Brighton (Again).

This, if true, is as hilarious as it is awful.*
The hotel is not far from Fagburn Mansions - though it's technically in Hove, it's still pretty near the heart of Gayland Central, Gayville.
I'll go round in a bit and shout "Boo!"

*Update: It might not be true - The Guardian. Oops!

Thought For The Day: Suzanne Moore

"We desperately need foster parents, but what drives Christians to go to court to prove they can legally discriminate against homosexuals? Don’t they have better things to do?
"Bishops say this is not a secular country. Judges say it is. I agree. Canon Dr Chris Sugden made me laugh complaining that the Christian faith is treated as if it were ‘on a parallel with Melanesian frog worship’. This is not a faith I am familiar with, but one for the census definitely."

Suzanne Moore, The Mail On Sunday - Fagburn reads it so you don't have to...
For an alternative view see Nick "Hello, I'm bobbins!" Ferrari in his Sunday Express column, 'The Stench Of Real Prejudice' - as Fagburn predicted he's used David Starkey's "new tyranny" trope.

• Image 'Zuerst die Füsse' by Martin Kippenberger - "Banned by the Pope"

David Starkey: Getting Into Bed With The Enemy

The Christian Institute has got a new BFF!
Hallelujah!
It's David Starkey, of making endless unwatchable TV programmes about the Royal Family fame.
Funny, I bet you're thinking, isn't he an atheist and a gayer and "the rudest man in Britain"?
Yes, but he's just come out very publicly in defence of anti-gay Christians.
''Gay Historian David Starkey Defends Christians', The Christian Institute hosannas on its website.
Mrs Mr Starkey was on Question Time yet again on Thursday, being rude and spitting feathers about this awful modern world.
They got onto discussing those new equality laws that Christian bigots keeping fall foul of.
David Starkey offered a stark warning; “I am gay and I am atheist but I have profound doubts about this case.
"It seems to me that what we are doing is producing a tyrannous new morality that is every bit as oppressive as the old.”
You better get used to these words - you're going to hear them hurled at us endlessly by The Daily Mail et al.
He explained that when he grew up being gay was "very difficult..." [Makes sad face]
"But I am very, very concerned that a new sort of liberal morality is coming in which is as intolerant, is as oppressive, is as intrusive into family life.”
Remember that nice Christian couple that got fined because they discriminated against a gay couple?
David thought that was madness, and made a modest proposal; “It is for them simply to put up what seems to me to be a quite proper notice in a small privately-run hotel which says we are Christians and this is what we believe.
“Otherwise, we are as I said, we're producing a new tyranny,” a line so good he's said it thrice.
"And can I also tell you something else?"
I fear you're going to anyway.
It's not going to be an Andrew Pierce-style "I, as a gay man, hate this gayery", is it David?
"Speaking as somebody who is gay and had a mother who was a Christian and passionately hated and opposed it, the hatred and the opposition made me what I am.
"Being nice and sweet about gays isn't wholly a good thing. It really isn't.
"We live in a world of intense difficulty and plurality, and just having a hand-me-down, reach-me-down, off-the-hanger imposed morality is a very bad idea."
What a silly old sod.
Surprised? You shouldn't be.
David Starkey is a gay Tory, so squaring circles and embracing contradictions come as easy to him as farting.
He used to be chairman of TORCHE, the Conservative Campaign For Homosexual Equality, who despite their name were never really known for campaigning for equality.
A gay Uncle Tom?
David's more of an Aunty Tom.
Getting into bed with the enemy - when the enemy won't let us sleep in the same room.
Praise be!

Ann Widdecombe: Oh Do Shut Up!

'Ministers Cave In To Political Correctness'
"...Homosexual rights already trump those of religious conscience and now apparently prevail even over truthful academic analysis.
"This intolerant minority of homosexuals must be squashed and the people to administer that much-needed lesson – in the absence of a Government with any moral backbone – is the sensible majority who are embarrassed by the antics of their fellow homosexuals."

Ann Widdecombe, former Conservative politician, in her column in The Daily Express today.

"I start with history for three reasons. The first is that while some argue that gay rights has been an onrushing tide, brooking little opposition, insisting that “we” bow to political correctness dictated by “them”, the truth is that progress has been very slow; that decades have passed between the recognition of injustice and its correction.
The second is that the history of the suffering of gay people — of jailing, of police intimidation, of discrimination, of street violence against them — and the story of the long and difficult struggle for gay rights illustrates that this is for us in this country the great civil rights cause of our lifetime.
And finally, I start with history because I fear that it shows that the role of Conservatives in advancing this civil rights cause has not been glorious..."

Daniel Finkelstein, former Conservative politician, in his column in The Times today.

Melanie Phillips: "Vile Poisonous Horrible Woman"

"In my article ['Yes, gays have often been the victims of prejudice. But they now risk becoming the new McCarthyites'], I expressed concern that attempting to bar a Christian GP from the government’s advisory council on drugs because of his views on homosexuality, ­bombarding the school curriculum with irrelevant gay references, and prosecuting Christian hoteliers for refusing to ­accommodate gay men in the same bedroom were ­examples of a frightening intolerance.
"The response to this warning against an attempt by the gay lobby to silence dissent? An eruption of tweets on Twitter suggesting that I should be killed. Yes, really.
"Apologies if the hideous and obscene ­language shocks some readers, but examples of such tweets included: ‘Someone just kill Melanie Phillips please’; ‘your homo­phobic rant equals that which comes out of a dog’s rectum. Kill yourself you ****’; and ‘throw her in the Thames’.
"And emails to me included such epithets as ‘vile, poisonous, horrible old woman’, and ‘people like you should be silenced as you insight (sic) bigotry and fear. Go and suck a tail pipe, get cancer, GET RAN OVER BY A TRAIN. I hope your ******* house burns down’..."

The Daily Mail's attention-seeking nutter-in-chief, Melanie Phillips; 'The calls for me to be killed this week prove the bedrock values of our society are in grave danger'

Great stuff everyone - keep it up!

Moral Maze: Whose Rights?

There's been much ink spilled over the last week debating whether gay rights should trump Christian "rights" (ie bigotry).
Rod Liddle in The Sunday Times announced dramatically; 'This Is, Indeed, A Rosa Parks Moment' (If you can get past the paywall, there's also a video interview with Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy).
Radio 4's Moral Maze had an enjoyable heated debate on this vexed question yesterday.
Sadly the hilarious right-wing nutjob, Melanie Phillips, wasn't on - here's a predictably barking piece in The Daily Mail; 'Yes, gays have often been the victims of prejudice. But they now risk becoming the new McCarthyites' - but we did get Britain's best known ex-gay, Michael Portillo.

The Bulls: A Sense Of Perspective

"No one has tied me to a stake and set light to me yet, so we have to put this in perspective."

Hazelmary Bull loses all sense of perspective in a fawning Daily Mail profile; 'The Christian hotelier found guilty of gay bias looks set to lose her home and asks: So who's really being persecuted?'

Daily Mail: Mr & Mr Smith

'Isn't that romantic, George, dear? Mr and Mr Smith would like the bridal suite.'
The Daily Mail cartoonist, Mac.
Interesting that for once gay men aren't caricatured as effete pansies, but big hulking brutes scaring those nice tiny Christians...

Edit: I've replaced the original image with a higher definition scan taken from the blog Angry Mob, who points out Mac appears to have drawn a swastika tattoo on one of the mens' forearms - nice touch!

Fagburn Awards 25: Bigot Enablers Of The Year

The Daily Mail for their sinister ongoing campaign of backing homophobic bigots and demonising equality legislation in the name of what they have hilariously dubbed "Christian discrimination".
They also employ Richard Littlejohn, Jan Moir and Andrew Pierce.
Fucking hopeless.

Fagburn Awards 15: Gay Uncle Tom of the Year

It's The Daily Mail's anti-gay pet gay snoot queen, Andrew Pierce.
Two pieces of pissy Miss Pierce's gay uncle tomfoolery stood out this year;
'Why I, as a gay man, abhor these TV queens'
and 'Why I, as a gay man, agree with the Pope - Harriet Harman's equality mania only promotes intolerance'
Yup, those are the actual titles in the Mail.
Fuck off, Andrew.

B&B Bigots: "We're not prejudiced"

The Daily Mail devoted a devoted Hello-style double page spread to leading Christian mentalists, Peter and Hazelmary Bull; 'We're not prejudiced - just two Christians who passionately believe in the sanctity of marriage'
No, you're prejudiced.
As for being sued simply for upholding their Christian beliefs, Hazelmary says: ‘Christians are increasingly marginalised in British society, and what we have here is a head-on collision between the conflicting beliefs of Christians and those of homosexuals. Why should the rights of gay people take precedence over ours?
It seems to us that this new law has not been very carefully thought through, and I think there are going to be huge ramifications, no matter how this all pans out. People will not change their views because the law has changed.’
As noted on here before it looks like this is the first stage in a battle to overturn the gay equality laws - or "Christian discrimination" as the Mail laughably calls it - by some people in the Conservative party.
Here's yesterday's Daily Mail; "Mixed-race adoption rules must be changed say ministers... but they duck fears over Christian discrimination"
Fagburn is loving the accompanying photo of the Bulls drinking tea - they think they're people!

B&B Ban: Cornish Patsies

The case of that awful old pair of anti-gay Christian bigots who run that hotel in wherever it was they filmed The Whicker Man has finally come to court.
Several newspapers today had variations on this titular theme from the Telegraph; 'Hotel owners 'were set up' over gay couple - A homosexual couple suing the Christian owners of a seaside hotel may have booked a double room as a ''set-up'', a court heard yesterday'
Stonewall say they had been in contact with Mr and Mrs Bull telling them they were breaking the equality laws by not allowing gay couples to share a bed, but the booking made by Martyn Preddy and Steven Hall was made independently.
Even if they had been involved in a "set-up" Stonewall would only have been doing their job.
The far more interesting point about this case is not; ''Gay ban hotel owners to claim they were set up', as the ever politically illiterate Pink News put it.
It is that some leading figures in the Conservative government - most notably chairman [sic] Sayeeda Warsi, and former shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling - have been itching to find a case to use to overturn Labour's gay (and other) equality laws.
Here be it!
Even if the court rules against them this will not be the end of this "religious discrimination" farce.
Don't say I didn't try and warn you.

Update: Judgement has been deferred until after Christmas.

Bed & Breakfast Bans: For The Love Of God

'Christian B&B owners sued for discrimination after refusing to allow gay couple share a double bed'
You may have guessed this is from The Daily Mail.
"The Christian owners of a seaside guesthouse are being sued in a landmark case - for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a double bed.
"Devout Peter and Hazelmary Bull refused to let civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy use a double room because it would be ‘an affront to their faith’.
"They are using 2007 Equality Act Regulations to claim up to £5,000 in damages at a landmark case that begins at Bristol County Court next Monday."
As if this isn't awful enough, we learn that Mrs Bull is "a great grandmother" and Mr Bull "works for the RSPB charity".
What heartless bastards would want to affront their values!!!?
Stonewall are backing the Bulls, The Christian Institute the godless Gays.
Are you normal?
You can book a room at the Chyrmorvah House "family hotel" in Cornwall here.
They cook the porridge in the AGA overnight, you know?
Why not give them a call on 01736 716497 and ask if it's okay to stay if you promise not to do any bumming?
Fagburn is tired of repeating arguments against hate-loving bigots like these, beyond the fact that they sound so bonkers they should be sectioned.
As ever there is much truth spoken on the Daily Mail's messageboards;
"Good luck to you, Mr. and Mrs. Bull," writes Gordon from Evesham.
"I hope that your principles and 'rights' triumph over those of two predatory homosexuals.
"It is time that this 'equality' nonsense was put into perspective."
It's certainly something to think about.
Purely in the interests of balance I shall leave you with the thoughts of Annie, from Devon.
"I've stayed here - it's absolutely horrid - they haven't spent a penny on it in years - breakfast was disgusting..... it was a few years ago that I stayed to be fair but I remember clearly saying that we would never ever return. So, gay or not - just don't bother."

This was also a hot topic on The Sun's messageboards today - Fagburn is often pleasantly surprised at how pro-gay comments heavily outweigh phobic ones here.
Several posters pointed out that the hotel's rules would mean they'd turn away Mary and Joseph, as they were an unmarried couple.
But would the Bulls even offer them the stable?

Daily Telegraph: The War Against Equality

In a leader today The Telegraph welcomes Theresa May's dropping of the duty to equality, and her potentially seismic semantic shift from talking about "equality" to "fairness".
It is worth quoting at length - not least because it sounds to Fagburn like an opening salvo.
"Speaking in a south London community centre this week, Theresa May argued that equality has become not a noble goal, but "a dirty word… associated with the worst forms of pointless political correctness and social engineering". Harriet Harman, take a bow.
"The Home Secretary was announcing her decision to scrap the clause in Miss Harman's Equality Act that placed a duty on all public bodies to take account of "the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage" at all times – so sweeping a requirement that it was labelled "socialism in one clause". This is welcome news: as Lynne Featherstone, a Lib Dem Home Office minister, told Parliament yesterday, "all the policy would have been was a bureaucratic box to tick… another form to fill in".
"We urge Mrs May to be similarly ruthless towards the other clauses that await her approval. These include the need for the public sector workforce, across 27,000 separate bodies, to be monitored in terms of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality and disability, and the lifting of a ban on positive discrimination in recruitment."
And do you think the demands for overturning equality laws will stop there?
It looks like there is a new front opening in the Tories' war against equality - gay adoption...

Equality Law: Now You're Just Being "Ridiculous"

The Tories class war continues apace.
'Fury as Theresa May scraps equality law' - The Daily Mirror.
"Home Secretary Theresa May was accused of a shocking attack on the poor yesterday after scrapping an equality law.
"Councils will no longer need to consider disadvantages and inequalities in their policy decisions."
Of course this has pleased those on the right.
'Theresa May will today scrap a ‘ridiculous’ Harriet Harman equality law dubbed ‘socialism in one clause’' - The Daily Mail
May's speech about ending "Harman's law" was "leaked" to the Mail.
Reading between the lines, more worryingly the Conservatives seem to be abandoning any commitment to equality - now they will talk of "fairness".
The Home Office press release announced;
"Controversial rules that would have forced all public bodies to focus spending and services on poorer areas at the expense of better-off communities were today scrapped."
But in a piece of spin as obvious as an iceberg it adds;
"The speech also underlined the government’s ongoing commitment to equality and fairness."
Really? Do go on...
"This included the Home Secretary announcing that a measure in the Freedom Bill will allow people who were prosecuted for having consensual gay sex at a time when this was illegal to apply to have their convictions deleted from criminal records."
May also said in her speech; "...we will give schools the power to take tough action to tackle bullying, including homophobic and transphobic bullying."
Verily, the Conservatives giveth and the Conservatives take away.
Even if they don't say how they will giveth in practical terms.
Would anyone fall for this?
"Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May has spoken out on a new equalities strategy, announcing that those harboring convictions for consensual gay sex should soon be able to apply to have their records cleared," Jamie Tabberer writes on PinkPaper.com.
"She added: “We will give schools the power to take tough action to tackle bullying, including homophobic and transphobic bullying."
"May will however scrap an inequality measure that would have called for public bodies to address class inequalities introduced by Harriet Harman, labeling it 'ridiculous'."
Pink News' headline reads; ''May scraps ‘ridiculous’ equality duty but promises new action on anti-gay bullying'
Ridiculous innit?

Equality Laws: Bed & Bigotry

In a poll on the website Bed & Breakfast Owner, 13 per cent of respondents said it would be unacceptable for a lesbian or gay couple to share a double bedded room.
Who's going to tell William Hague?