Religion and LGBT rights
– is there a conflict?
By Peter Purton, TUC LGBT/disability
policy officer
If you believe what you read in the press,
the answer to this question is a no-brainer.
Every day there is more news of persecution
of LGBT people and denial of LGBT rights
argued on the basis of religious belief. Just in
the last few weeks, alongside the now routine
judicial murder of people by Isis/Da’esh for
having had homosexual sex, the primates of
the Church of England have chastised their
American affiliates for their liberal stance
in order to satisfy African archbishops who
support our criminalisation in their own
countries. Elsewhere in America, candidates
seeking nomination for the presidency of the
USA seek to outdo each other in boasting
of how their faith means they reject same
sex marriage. In Russia, the Orthodox
Church supports ever more punitive laws are
proposed against public demonstrations of
same sex affection. It would be easy to add
to this list. On the face of it, it looks like
there is an open and shut case for saying that
LGBT rights and religion are on opposite
sides and that’s all that needs to be said.
At the TUC, we believe this would be a
mistake. For a start, there are members of
every faith who are also LGB and T. They
would be forced to choose between two
identities both of which are central to their
lives, if there was no way to resolve the
conflict. Secondly, and regardless of what
those who live in an increasingly secular
western world may think about it, there is
no evidence of a weakening of the hold of
religion in most of the world. It’s a reality
and that means finding a way for LGB and T
people to obtain equal rights in those same
countries. Thirdly, at a time when the issue
of hostility to migrants and asylum seekers
commands ever more extreme headlines
and is being ruthlessly exploited by some
politicians in Britain as elsewhere in Europe,
as well as by far right groups like the EDL,
LGBT people suddenly find themselves
recruited to the cause of racism and bigotry
against people fleeing persecution who are
Muslim, and who must – so the argument
goes – share the monstrous ideology of the
terrorists. If it wasn’t so frightening, you
could be forgiven for seeing it as ironic that
the same people, and the same newspapers,
that once opposed every single step towards
LGBT equality are now trying to use against
their latest targets (we urge: resist any
temptation to follow them).
To be clear: we make no concessions
to prejudice against LGB and T people
whether it comes from someone claiming
religious authority, or arguing that our
equality undermines the traditional family,
or any of the other spurious claims used to
justify the denial of our rights. Unions have
always rejected the exemptions permitted
in UK law for religious organisations to
discriminate against us and we oppose the
spring 2015
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