Here Comes a Chopper

[steepholm]

Well, what a surprise. The unelected bishops in the unelected House of Lords have voted to allow the churches to continue to discriminate against gay and transgender people - for example, when it comes to employing youth workers or administrators. As the move's sponsor, the nauseating and unelected Detta O’Cathain, put it: "Organizations that are based on deeply held beliefs, must be free to choose their staff on the basis of those beliefs.” These sentiments were enthusiastically seconded by the unelected John Sentamu; and I'm sure Nick Griffin (elected) would concur.

It's when things like this happen, with so little fuss, that I'm forced to remember how much institutionalized bigotry this country still boasts. Except, of course, that most of these people have no democratic mandate at all, so perhaps they speak for no one but their own privileged selves?

If there is hope, it lies in the proles...

Comments

[gillo]

If there is hope, it lies in the proles...

That's right, Winston.

Sometimes I forget, after sending time in the mostly-liberal enclave of my LJ flist, just how scared many ordinary people seem to be of things taken for granted here - that gender and orientation do not render anyone ipso facto a threat or a loony, for example. And then I talk to some of my colleagues.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

But in other news: the social tolerance survey reckons they are losing. Only 36% of people disapprove of homosexuality, and the evidence (according to the woman on radio 4) is that the intolerant group is aging.

As I frequently remind people: Clause 28 was in the end a loss for the bigots.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good news (though I imagine the approval figure would be lower, as yet, for transsexuals- a category never mentioned in the Bible at all, irrc). I remember Thomas Kuhn made the point that how people tend not to get "converted" from one paradigm to another, but the supporters of the old paradigm just die out - and so it may be here, even if a few of them seem to stop off at the House of Lords as a well-upholstered halfway house.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Jesus. One in three people in this country disapprove of homosexuality? That's fucking appalling.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

That's a huge improvement on 20 years ago, when less than 50% were "tolerant".

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Except, of course, that most of these people have no democratic mandate at all, so perhaps they speak for no one but their own privileged selves?

Except, of course, that the Church of England is the Established church, and as such is recognised as the religious voice of the nation. Which should mean that it isn't exempt from the law.

If they don't like it, let them ask to be disestablished.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

To be fair, they're asking that all denominations should be able to discriminate this way. It's what Jesus would have wanted, apparently.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It's what Jesus would have wanted, apparently.

Heh.

Nonetheless, there's a reason why those bishops are in the House of Lords. The CofE takes the benefits of bing part of the government, they should put up with the obligations as well. Both, or neither: it seems a fair choice.