The Government’s Equality Bill aims to “entrench gay rights in all aspects of public life”, writes a leading gay rights campaigner.
Tony Grew’s article posted on PinkNews.co.uk, a gay news website, analysed the wide-ranging advantages of the Bill for the gay community.
Mr Grew is the former editor of PinkNews.co.uk but left in March to set up a new website reporting on parliamentary affairs.
Earlier this week it emerged homosexual campaigners have been boasting about how they hope to use the new Equality Bill to force local councils to back their demands.
The boasts were made on equalitybill.com, run by a political campaigner who also works for Lord Alli, an openly gay Peer in the House of Lords.
Harriet Harman’s failure to mention religion, as she listed the grounds of discrimination the Equality Bill aims to address, has fuelled concerns that measures already being used against Christians could be made worse.
The Equality Bill has sparked strong concerns among employers who say it will bring major red tape and cost burdens at a time of recession.
The British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry and the Institute of Directors have all criticised the Bill.
Publically funded media chiefs have also voiced fears that Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill could interfere with their TV programming by imposing politically correct quotas of actors and presenters.
The BBC and Channel 4 are concerned that the requirements of the Bill would force them to hire actors, presenters and production staff on grounds of their gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, rather than suitability for the programme.
Under the Bill public bodies like local councils will be able to “drive equality” by granting contracts to businesses which promote politically correct causes.
This could mean Christian businesses and charities which refuse to promote ‘gay rights’ will in turn be refused funding.
The Bill also provides for new “Equality Duties” to be placed on all public bodies, requiring them to positively promote “equality” on grounds like sexual orientation, transsexualism and religion.
However, a number of recent cases appear to have shown that under equality laws, where the rights of Christians clash with others, particularly ‘gay rights’, Christians are likely to lose out.