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Homosexuality

Division widens

Meet Phil, a devout Christian and Leo, a practising homosexual.

Do homosexuals today have it easy than decades ago?

Clause 28 no longer applies. Gays and lesbians can now serve in the army. The civil partnership bill is coming into effect this December.

Stonewall, the homosexual support group founded by Sir Ian McKellan, believes these legislative changes improved their lives.

But Christian Institute is campaigning to reinstate the ban of gays and lesbians in the army. Like the Tories it also tried to change the civil partnership bill.

Statistics indicate homophobic crime has increased by 176% in Northern Ireland and Strathclyde, the biggest policing area in Scotland, and 8.5% in London in the last financial year.

According to a Guardian article, only 27% of gay, lesbian or bisexual people in Northern Ireland feel safe walking down the street at night.

And only a week after declaring he hasn't experienced homophobia in Britain, Leo encountered two incidents, one involving kids as young as nine.

Yobs or religious zealots?

Christian Voice protesting Bournemouth's homosexual community

Stephen Green, director of Christian Voice and author of anti-gay book The Sexual Dead End, believes such crimes are committed by yobs who are neither interested in religion nor morals.

Michael Halls, director of homosexual support group Intercom Trust, says while this may be true, prejudiced people are turning to conservative religions because they “provide excuse and justification to the prejudices.”

Rev. Dwayne Morgan also say those who commit these crimes often have a disdain for homosexuals derived from extreme religious beliefs, which teaches homosexuality is not only wrong but “an affront to their religious beliefs" that it becomes alright to beat or kill them.

Civil but not religious

And while he's glad to see legislation that will allow same sex couples to marry, the civil partnership bill reminds him of the racial segregation in America's Deep South.

Calling them civil unions and not allowing religious recognition means: "In many eyes, this is a secondary class of citizenship."

The pastor at Metropolitan Community Church, Bournemouth believes it reinforces the us-versus-them mentality.

The bill threatens further division between the two sides already at loggerheads.

Sinful, “pseudo freedoms”

Already, Bromley council in London says they will allow couples to register but ceremonies on municipal property will be banned.

For Christian Voice, homosexuality is an abomination of God. Legalising its practice and union show how Britain has deteriorated.

Pope Benedict called gay marriages "fake"

In late June, it rowed with the Co-Operative Bank when the Bank requests to close the group's account in light of its stand on homosexuality.

Anti-gay groups have a powerful ally in the new Pope, who denounced same-sex unions as "fake" and "pseudo freedoms."

Even Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, said to be a liberal, have remained largely silent.

Many believe this was due to pressure from the more conservative quarters of the Church.

Interpreting the Bible

Maverick bishop Pat Buckley however believes it's possible to be gay and Christian.

"I think many Christians misquote the Bible and use the bible to propagate prejudice and intolerance."

Rev. Richard Kirker of Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement agrees.

He says slavery, oppression of women and strict dietary controls, all 'commanded' in the Bible are not practised today. He sees homosexuality similarly.

Rev. Morgan adds: “We all know there are bad relationships, straight or gay.

"I find it hard to believe that my wanting to love a man will make God hate me."

Playwright, journalist and openly gay Johann Hari, however, says it's "ludicrous" to derive morality from a "2000 year old book of fiction."