Florida Agenda

CARDIFF, WALES, UNITED KINGDOM – The government of Wales is investigating whether a Roman Catholic lobbying group encouraged a campaign against marriage equality in the country’s secondary schools.

Welsh Minister for Children and Education Leighton Andrews is looking into allegations that the Catholic Education Service (CES) sent an email last month to all Catholic secondary schools in order to promote an online petition organized by the Coalition for Marriage, a conservative political group.

The group’s Web site notes the Roman Catholic Church and its Archbishops support the signaturegathering effort, which opposes progressive changes to the laws on marriage.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has accused the CES of “victimizing” students, and is asking both Andrews and his counterpart in the British government, Education Secretary Michael Gove, to intervene.

BHA officials say that the Coalition for Marriage petition violates British political and campaign laws, and is seeking a Roman Catholic student to initiate a court challenge. CES denies the allegations and says that the Roman Catholic view of marriage is a religious, not political one.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM – A coalition of faith groups in Scotland has roundly condemned the religious ban on marriage equality as “discriminatory,” claiming that it “reinforces homophobia.”

Faith in Marriage—which includes members of the United Reformed Church, the Quakers, the Unitarians, Liberal Judaism, the Humanists, the Iona Community, Buddhists, the Open Episcopal Church, the Metropolitan Community Church and the Pagan Federation—has initiated a campaign to convince the Scottish Parliament to lift the country’s ban on religious same-sex marriage. In addition to the groups named above, the organization has the support of clergy from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

The letter, copies of which were distributed by Faith in Marriage representatives to Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), called for an end to the prohibition and demanded the right to perform gay marriages. “We believe that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people should be entitled to full equality under the law, and that the current ban on same-sex marriage is discriminatory and reinforces homophobia in society,” it read.

Echoed Rev. Scott McKenna, a Church of Scotland minister from Edinburgh: “In opposing equality, churches reinforce homophobia in society and that can lead to pain, low self-respect and, in some cases, violence. In the end this is about people who are on the receiving end of prejudice and are suffering because of that. The cycle needs to be broken.”

The letter says that the organization and its members will “strongly oppose” any efforts to limit same-sex marriage to civil ceremonies. Faith in Marriage is calling for MSPs to “protect and extend” freedom of religion and faith by “giving those religious and humanist bodies that do want to conduct same-sex marriage the right to do so” in future legislation.

Faith in Marriage’s campaign follows on the heels of an anti-gay marriage initiative from opponents Scotland for Marriage, a coalition that includes members of the United Free Church of Scotland, the Church of Scotland, the Evangelical Alliance in Scotland, CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) for Scotland, The Christian Institute, the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches in Scotland, and the Christian Brethren in Scotland.

It also has the support of Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The group claims that marriage equality will “dismantle marriage which has only ever meant the union of a man and a woman.”

LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM – In an unusual call for political unity between faiths that are often at-odds with one another, the pope’s personal representative to the United Kingdom is urging British Roman Catholics to form a “united front” with British Muslims and conservative Jews to oppose marriage equality.

During an address to Roman Catholic bishops, the papal nuncio, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, repeated recent comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, who said that the church faces “powerful political and cultural currents” that threaten the traditional definition of marriage.

The nuncio’s timing coincides with recent statements by conservative British Jewish and Muslim leaders, who voiced strong opposition to Undersecretary for Equalities Lynne Featherstone’s call for a national dialog on marriage equality and the best ways to implement it. In response, the Muslim Council of Britain described the plan as both “unnecessary and unhelpful.”

Similarly, Scotland’s Council of Glasgow Imams agreed to a resolution that describes same-sex marriage as an “attack” on the Muslim faith and its fundamental tenets Although Liberal and Reform Jewish synagogues have thrown their support behind the U.K.’s marriage equality plans, the country’s United Synagogues—British Judaism’s largest sect, which holds its religious authority from the Chief Rabbi of Britain—have come out in opposition, with one prominent London rabbi condemning what he called the government “assault” on religious liberty and values.

In addition, the leader of Britain’s Network of Sikh Organizations, Lord Indarjit Singh, says that the plans to reform the U.K.’s marriage laws are “a sideways assault on religion.”

LONDON, UK – LGBT rights have come unexpectedly to the forefront of the debate in this year’s campaign for Mayor of London, with the current officeholder being criticized for permitting homophobic ads to be placed on public transportation by an anti-gay church.

Last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson, a well-placed figure in the country’s Conservative Party, ordered municipal employees to pull the ads, which were paid for by a Christian group called Core Issues Trusts, which supports “reparative therapy,” a highly controversial and widely-discredited course of “treatment” to turn gay people straight.

The bus ads—which were scheduled to run for two weeks starting this Monday—carried the message “Not Gay! Post-Gay, Ex-Gay, and Proud. Get Over It.” They were meant to mimic a recent campaign by LGBT rights group Stonewall that included the message “Some people are gay. Get over it.”

“London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance,” said Johnson. “It is clearly offensive to suggest being gay is an illness someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses.”

According to Core Issues’ Web site, the group is “a non-profit Christian initiative seeking to support men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression.” The group’s co-director, Mike Davidson, expressed displeasure with Johnson’s decision to block the ads.

“It is of deep concern that there can only be one point of view and that is the point of view of individuals who are determined to push through gay marriage and apparently believe that homosexuality cannot be altered in any possible way,” said Davidson. “This is a disturbing development.” Davidson has previously said that he believes “homoerotic behavior is sinful.”

Johnson, who is seeking a second term, was also criticized by one of his opponents, Labor candidate Ken Livingstone. “In 1906 the front page of the Daily Mail’s headline was ‘Jews bring crime and disease to Britain,’” said Livingstone, a former Mayor of London who was defeated in 2008 by Johnson. “Then it was the blacks, then it was the Irish, then it was the lesbians and gays—there has always got to be an enemy.

Alex Vaughn

There are certain events that happen in a lifetime you won’t ever forget. Every slow motion moment is ingrained in our memories and will forever shape our view of the world. The terror of 9/11 is undoubtedly one of the most potent of these memories. For someone of my generation who barely remembers anything about the Gulf War, let alone the wars of the past, 9/11 affected me in a way that I can only imagine witnessing a war would.

Prior to 9/11, any real terror had only been witnessed in movies or in far away countries that had nothing to do with a nineteen year old from London. The terrorist attacks on the USA eclipsed so much that I genuinely have no memory of anything even remotely similar to the effect the events had on me.

An Alan Jackson song came out fairly soon after the events of 9/11, the title of which was ‘Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning’. I remember the whole thing as if it were yesterday. I was on holiday with my parents in Greece. We were staying at a beach resort and my sister and I had decided we  didn’t want to join any of the super, fun, jovial ‘activities’ they had for the young people led by the all too smiley holiday reps. No – our idea of a holiday was to find somewhere far away from the shiny happy reps where we could chill out listen to music and enjoy the sun and sea.

My sister, however, had managed to get too much sun and, feeling too ill, went up to the villa. I relaxed outside and took in the sea and continued to fry in the baking sun. My phone alerted me to the arrival of a text message. It was from my friend – they weren’t really supposed to text me, roaming charges aren’t what they are today and my dad was ready to shoot me anyway for how much I had spent texting all my friends about the trip, forgetting of course I was in a different country. The text message said ‘Get to a TV.

New York is being blown up’. I looked at the message and was instantly irritated. Did my friends have nothing better to do than to annoy me with silly jokes? I replied the obligatory ‘What are you talking about?’ and almost instantly got a reply ‘It’s like a movie, it almost has to be – GET TO A TV’. I replied back, ‘Ok but so help you if you are lying because I am enjoying sunbathing and have to walk all the way back to my villa!’.

I grabbed my stuff and, with no real urgency, started making my way back to my villa. To get to the villas, you had to pass the pools and the club house. As I climbed the last step to reach the pool from the private beach, I was immediately struck with how empty it was. Empty is, actually, an understatement; it looked like everyone had been evacuated. The towels were still there, bags, phones, etc., beach balls and lilos still in the pool, but no one there. No shiny people, no staff, no screaming British brats, no adults. Just eerie silence.

I came around to the clubhouse and saw everyone, all clamouring to stare at the small TV. It dawned on me there and then that something really had happened. I broke into a run up the hill to the villa, burst in to see my sister watching the TV in total shock. I focused in on what she was watching as a second plane hit the Twin Towers. I stood there motionless, unable to comprehend what I was watching.  Surely this could only happen in an Independence Day-style Hollywood Blockbuster – how could this be real life?

My phone started ringing; I answered it barely able to speak, so utterly confused as to what was unfolding in front of my eyes. One of my best friends was talking to me, asking if I was watching and reminding me we had only been there a year before – she was looking at a picture of us standing in front of the twin towers.

That night at dinner, no one really spoke – a scary silence had befallen the entire holiday. Panic about potential lost friends and loved ones had taken over, teamed with the idea we may be stuck as flights had been cancelled left, right and center.

I had a friend who was in NY. She had witnessed it all, she was fine; we finally had confirmation of that.  My parents knew everyone they knew was fine, and so we could settle down.

Yet the uneasy feeling was there – it was palpable. We were in Greece, hardly a
terrorist threat, but who knew? Ask us all a week before if we could believe what happened could …

Back in London a few days later, the mood hadn’t changed.  It had, in fact, gotten worse.  The UK was on high alert, as was everywhere else in the world. Suddenly, my home city felt different in a way I couldn’t understand.

Over time, it settled and we never forgot 9/11, nor the horrific images of people jumping from burning buildings, the huge loss of life, the fear of flying … but we relaxed into the safety of knowing we weren’t the USA, so terrorists wouldn’t strike us.

Some four years later, in July, 2005, the 7/7 terrorist attacks hit London. The scale was smaller, but the impact was felt around the world. Yet for me, it was an extremely bizarre situation. I was due to travel that day, and still managed to. Yet, the first thing that morning, I was neither transfixed nor worried about people I knew. No, in my own city I knew that I didn’t know anyone who would be in town, on a bus or a tube at that time of the morning. My dad drove to work, my friends, if they worked, drove too. I sat back and watched the TV and tried to wrestle with the fact that a terrorist attack had taken place in my own city, in areas I knew well, that I had driven through, first with my parents and then, when I could drive, on my own.  And yet, I felt isolated, out of the loop, whereas with 9/11, something that occurred in a city I had only visited a handful of times changed my world, my mindset, awareness and understanding of what I thought I knew.

As we commemorate those lost nearly ten years ago, and celebrate the heroes, think back: Where were you?

Alex Vaughn is the Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Agenda. He can be reached at editor@FloridaAgenda.com

UNITED?KINGDOM – A report from the U.K.’s Equality and Human Rights Commission recommends children should be asked if they are gay starting at age 11, and a record of those who are unsure or “questioning” their sexuality should be kept.

According to The Daily Mail, the report says children could be asked about their sexuality without their parent’s consent. The commission says the purpose of monitoring sexual orientation among young people is to prevent them from becoming victims of discrimination and bullying.

The report claims “some young people begin to question their sexual orientation as early as age eight and may begin to identify as LGB (lesbian, gay, bisexual) from early adolescence.”

Graham Stuart, Tory chairman of the Commons education select committee, called the plans “invasive, sinister and threatening.”  “School should be a place of safety, not a place where pupils are picked over for the purpose of some QUANGO [quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization]; and many children won’t understand what they are talking about.”

Teachers, nurses and youth workers are being urged to set up pilot studies aimed at monitoring adolescent sexual orientation for the first time.
A report commissioned by the Government’s equalities watchdog found that it was ‘practically and ethically’ possible to interview young children about their sexuality.  Controversially, it says parental consent, while ‘considered good practice,’ is not a legal necessity.

The report – Researching and Monitoring Adolescence and Sexual Orientation: Asking the Right Questions, at the Right Time – says it is “critical” to track children’s sexuality to “shed light on the complexities of young people’s developing sexual orientation and how this may disadvantage them”.   It tells researchers not to dismiss a subject’s gay feelings as “a passing phase”.

Last night, a Commission spokesman said: “This is independent research produced to help the Commission form its policy direction”.

LONDON, ENGLAND: T-Mobile users in the United Kingdom are alleging that the mobile phone service provider is blocking gay web sites from their cell phones. T-Mobile is one of the largest cell-phone carriers in the U.K. The provider said their “Content Lock” is designed to prevent people under 18 to connect with offensive content. However, this lock has also prevented users from viewing sites with no offensive material such as gay news sites, travel sites, bar listings and portals. T-Mobile has responded saying that the lock is the default setting and users wishing to see these sites can have the lock removed by verifying they are 18 and older.