Gays have more rights than Christians, report finds
By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt
Gay people have more rights than religious believers due to equality legislation, a parliamentary group found today.
The cross-party parliamentary group of Christians demanded equality laws be expanded to cover people with religious belief.
"Critically, early indications from court judgments are that sexual orientation takes precedence and religious belief is required to adapt in the light of this," the report found.
"We see this as an unacceptable and unsustainable situation."
The groups demanded "reasonable accommodation" is applied to Christians, putting religious believers into the same category as the disabled under the law.
"A largely fallacious narrative has been constructed around the notion that Christian and religious groups are under threat and being persecuted," said Pavan Dhaliwal, British Humanist Association head of public affairs.
"The right to your religious or non-religious beliefs is absolute; it is legitimate for the right to act on those beliefs to be restrained so that the rights of others are not violated.
"Our equality law protects religious people on those grounds in exactly the same way that it protects gay people – but no more than that."
The report was also extremely critical of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), saying it had been "hijacked" by secularists and turned into a body "ideologically biased" against religion.
