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LGBT

British Anti-Gay Cardinal Resigns Amid Allegations Of Inappropriate Relationships With Priests

By Zack Ford on Feb 25, 2013 at 9:06 am

Over the weekend, allegations came to light that the United Kingdom’s most senior Catholic official, Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, had engaged in inappropriate behavior with priests over the past few decades. The full details of the allegations are not yet known, but one priest alleges that O’Brien had an extended relationship with him that resulted in the need for long-term psychological counseling and others acknowledge unwanted sexual contact. Though O’Brien contested the claims, he has officially resigned from the Church, effective Sunday. He was due to retire next month anyway, but now he will not be able to represent Britain in the papal conclave to replace Pope Benedict XVI.

O’Brien has been a virulent opponent of LGBT equality, having launched a “war on gay marriage” last year, describing same-sex marriage as a “grotesque subversion.” In November, the gay rights group Stonewall unapologetically named him “bigot of the year” for his constant condemnations of gay people and their families. Just last week, O’Brien reiterated his opposition to same-sex marriage, but surprisingly suggested that straight priests ought to be allowed to marry.

LGBT

65-Year-Old Nurse Schools British Archbishop On Marriage Equality

By Zack Ford on Feb 22, 2013 at 10:19 am

The Catholic Church has been quite vocal in its opposition to marriage equality in the United Kingdom, despite Parliament’s intention to pass it. Perhaps none has been more outspoken than Westminister Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who admitted that the Church doesn’t even recognize the existence of homosexuality and is prepared to fire teachers who marry someone of the same sex.

One 65-year-old nurse from Northern England was tired of the rhetoric she was hearing at Church, and decided to write to Nichols expressing her concern. In it, she calls out the Church’s obsession with social issues to the detriment of addressing real problems in society. She asked to remain anonymous, but shared her letter with Gay Star News. Here’s an excerpt:

I do not find it at all easy or even possible to uphold the church’s teaching on homosexuality. Among gay people of my acquaintance are those who have a deep spiritual life, to have one’s sexual orientation, an orientation that one is born with, described as an ‘objective disorder’ and to hear homosexual acts described as ‘intrinsically evil’ surely makes it almost impossible to feel at home or welcome in the church. It is utterly unrealistic to expect homosexual people to live celibate lives (We all know that many priests find this very difficult and sometimes impossible). The revelations of clerical sex abuse have led many of us to look with a very critical eye on the so-called celibate life and to realize that it has all to often lead to warped and destructive behavior.

The world is facing disaster on all levels and this church, when not obsessing about matters sexual, spends an inordinate amount of time on pointless activities such as changing the liturgy back to a correct translation of the original Latin – a language not spoken by Jesus but spoken by the oppressors of his time and country. Do you imagine that this obsession with precisely translated texts will win you a single new adherent? To me, you (particularly but not exclusively the hierarchy) appear to be a frightened group of men preoccupied with titles, clothing and other religious externals. You seem, with some wonderful and brave exceptions, to pay only lip service to ecumenism and matters of social justice. I would love to see the so-called ‘Princes of the Church’ (Where did all these triumphant, utterly anti-Gospel titles you award yourselves come from?) get rid of the silk, the gold, the Gucci shoes, the ridiculous tall hats, croziers, fancy soutanes etc etc and substitute bare heads and a simple pilgrim’s staff on all liturgical occasions and that might be taken as a small outward sign of your inner acceptance of fundamental Gospel values.

The woman has apparently received a reply from Nichols, but it unsurprisingly did not address the substance of her comments. Polls suggest that she speaks on behalf of many Catholics who stand far-removed from the Church’s teachings on such issues. Read her full letter.

Economy

Another Report Confirms That Austerity Is Backfiring In The United Kingdom

By Pat Garofalo on Feb 8, 2013 at 3:20 pm

Former President Bill Clinton today warned House Democrats about embracing austerity as a solution to the U.S.’s economic woes. “Everybody that’s tried austerity in a time of no growth has wound up cutting revenues even more than they cut spending because you just get into the downward spiral and drag the country back into recession,” he said.

For evidence, House Democrats can gaze across the Atlantic at the United Kingdom, where austerity has put the country on the brink of a triple-dip recession, while doing next to nothing to reduce its deficit. According to the latest budget projections from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a London-based independent think tank, the UK will be borrowing £65 billion more next year thanks to austerity’s dampening effect on growth:

A significant part of the downgrade in official forecasts has come in the last two years. In response, further spending cuts have been pencilled in for after 2014–15 — the end of the current spending review period — to offset fully the increase in forecast structural borrowing: but not until 2017–18. A worse economic outlook since November 2010 has pushed up borrowing forecasts for 2014–15 by £65 billion. Mr Osborne has chosen to offset only £1 billion of this. In this sense, he is running looser fiscal policy over this parliament than he intended back in 2010. [...]

Our baseline public finance forecast shows a more than 50:50 chance that (on a like-for-like basis) borrowing this year will be higher than it was in 2011–12.

As the New Yorker’s John Cassidy put it, “In short, the U.K. experience shows how austerity policies, when applied without regard to the state of the economy, often lead to more government borrowing and debt creation, not less. In the past few years, we’ve seen pretty much the same thing happen in other European countries: Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and now Italy and Spain.”

The U.S., instead, opted for stimulus in 2009, and has returned to slow growth. But unless Congress prevents it, there is a healthy dose of austerity for the U.S. right around the corner.

LGBT

British House Of Commons Advances Marriage Equality Bill

By Zack Ford on Feb 5, 2013 at 2:32 pm

After a long day of debate, the United Kingdon’s House of Commons voted to approve marriage equality legislation with a vote of 400-175. Today’s vote was the second reading of the bill, which means it still has committee work and a vote in the House of Lords ahead of it. Still, this is a monumental sign that Britain will soon offer the freedom to marry to same-sex couples. Read through the Guardian’s liveblog for a glimpse at today’s debate and the protests outside it.

LGBT

STUDY: Treatment And Testing Are Not Curbing HIV Rates Among Gay Men In The UK

By Zack Ford on Feb 1, 2013 at 3:20 pm

A new study published today in The Lancet shows that despite increases in treatment and testing, HIV infection rates among gay and bi men in the United Kingdom have not declined. Testing rates quadrupled and treatment increased from 69 to 80 percent, but infection rates in England and Wales have flat-lined between 2,300 and 2,500 every year. A November report showed that more UK gay and bi men were diagnosed with HIV in 2011 than in any previous year on record.

The main problem the researchers report is that “a large proportion of new infections come from men who are recently infected themselves, so testing and treatment, while vital, are not the only answer.” If men are transmitting the virus before they even realize they have it, then education about responsible behavioral choices will be necessary to curb the rate beyond where it has flat-lined. Indeed, researchers cite two key challenges: men are having more unsafe sex because they don’t view HIV infection as deadly and internet dating sites make finding sexual partners increasingly easier.

Yusef Azad, director of policy at the National AIDS Trust, called for a “new approach to prevention for gay and bisexual men, which, in addition to continuing condom promotion,” will help address specific issues like drug use, mental health issues, and the gay scene.

Alyssa

Want To Be A UK Citizen? Study Up On Monty Python And Andrew Lloyd Webber

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Jan 30, 2013 at 10:34 am

As part of its attempts to make the U.K.’s citizenship exam more challenging, the Home Office has released a new version that, among other things, includes a wide range of questions on British culture:

The achievements of Monty Python, Rudyard Kipling and Andrew Lloyd Webber are all included in a new 180-page Home Office syllabus which asks potential citizens to learn about Britain’s history, culture and values, from the stone age to the 2010 general election, before they take a new and more tough “Life in the UK” test as part of the government’s intention to dramatically reduce net migration….

Don Flynn, director of the Migrants’ Rights Network, said: “The test takes us a long way from the goal of supporting the integration of migrants. It is in danger of looking more like an entry examination for a public school which requires complete identification with elite views of British history and culture…Migrants will have to learn about Purcell, Benjamin Britten and the Beatles, and “artistic achievements, from medieval stained glass to David Hockney, our national love of gardening, and the work of influential architects”.

I’m obviously sympathetic to complaints about the slants of historical interpretation in the exam. But I’m torn on the question of culture. I appreciate the recognition that part of being a citizen is having a sense of your national and collective culture. Even if you think the Super Bowl is obnoxious, or can’t hit the highest notes in the national anthem, I think most Americans have a general sense of those things, and some feelings about what it means that we like watching large men barrel into each other at high speeds, or the persistence of “Sweet Home Alabama.”

What’s a lot harder, however, turning the task of establishing an unofficial national canon over to the state. While The Guardian, in the piece I’m quoting above, spends more time on objections to the history sections of the exam, I can’t imagine everyone’s pleased with the menu of British culture that’s included in the test, whether the objections are based on the mix of high and low culture, or how multicultural the contributions are. Personally, I’d want to protect new citizens from knowledge of Andrew Lloyd Webber, but that’s just me. And this is for a relatively small country, albeit one with a long literary, architectural, and musical history—I can’t imagine what the fights over establishing a pool of knowledge for an American citizenship test would go. While canon implies something fixed and permanent, I’m a lot happier with a constant state of argument and revision, one not facilitated by the Home Office, or any other government body.

Justice

UK Doctors’ Group, Parliamentary Committee, And Police All Endorse Drug Decriminalization

By Nicole Flatow on Jan 29, 2013 at 10:30 am

As the perpetual emergence of new psychoactive drugs presents yet another challenge to pursuing the failed “War on Drugs,” prominent groups in the United Kingdom are calling for decriminalization of drug possession and even legal regulation of the market. Among those who have concluded after in-depth study that drug criminalization is counterproductive are the nation’s professional association for doctors and a parliamentary commission on drug use that includes members from all three of the UK’s predominant political parties.

From the All-Party Group on Drug Policy Reform’s report:

Currently we have a drugs control regime underpinned by an irrational drugs classification system, which is ignored by young people; and a banning process which drives the rising tide of new psychoactive substances into this Country. […]

Banning substances within the current system has not, and in our view will not, reduce their use overall. Evidence presented here indicates that, paradoxically, the banning of one drug can make the situation worse by stimulating the production of yet more new, unknown and potentially dangerous substances. […]

Drug policies which criminalise young people generate higher levels of unemployment, homelessness and relationship problems, and cost the taxpayer considerable sums.

The British Medical Association concludes in a report also out this month:

  • Criminalisation increases the health risks of illicit drugs by encouraging use in unsafe environments and through dangerous methods of administration. It also deters users from approaching health professionals for treatment.
  • A prohibitionist approach creates a lucrative opportunity for criminality and leads to high levels of acquisitive crime among dependent users.
  • The stigmatisation of vulnerable populations of drug users also has significant public health implications. […]
  • The national budget required for law enforcement, the criminal justice system and dealing with the costs of drug-related crime is several times higher than
    the amount spent on drug-related health interventions.

What’s more, top UK police officials testified to the parliamentary commission that the current infrastructure does nothing to reduce use of new psychoactive drugs, and that the government would be better off regulating low-risk psychoactive drugs, as New Zealand has done. “The solution to the particular challenges of legal highs does not lie in adding inexorably to the list of illicit substances,” Chief Constable Tim Hollis said.

The problem of what are known as “legal highs” involves the increasing manufacture of laboratory-produced drugs that mimic the psychoactive effects of popular but banned drugs. Because these new drugs are not immediately codified in the country’s drug ban laws, they are deemed “legal” by users, but that does not stop police from arresting and booking users of the unknown substances before testing the drug. The Parliament commission’s report found that consumers turn to these drugs particularly when they perceive illicit drugs to be laced with more dangerous substances, or of unpredictable strengths. But both their beliefs that these drugs will be safer, and that consuming the drugs is entirely “legal,” lead to perverse results and drive users to ever-more-unpredictable substances.

The phenomenon is the latest development to demonstrate the failure of harsh drug crackdowns to improve public health or safety. In spite of this growing consensus among experts, politicians in the UK – like U.S. politicians – are wary to implement recommended reforms or even undertake a more exhaustive review of current policies, with Prime Minister David Cameron maintaining, “I don’t support decriminalisation,” although he said in 2002 that the drug war “does not work.”

Increasing public support, however, has emboldened some state-level U.S. politicians to lead efforts to legalize and regulate marijuana in Washington and Colorado – a movement motivated by precisely the concerns identified in these two new reports, and intended to test alternative approaches that might actually improve public health and safety, while ending the shameful mass incarceration of U.S. citizens.

LGBT

Catholic Church Threatens To Fire British Gay Teachers Who Marry

By Zack Ford on Jan 28, 2013 at 1:28 pm

Archbishop Vincent Nichols

The Catholic Church continues to demonstrate that it will employ any tactic — no matter how deplorable — to oppose same-sex marriage. The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, has now said that any teachers in Britain’s Catholic Schools who have “a partnership of intimacy with another person, outside a form of marriage approved by the church…can be removed from office.”

PinkNews cited a statement a Church spokesman made to the UK’s Sunday Times:

The expectation is that [school] leaders and those who aspire to leadership positions will make substantive life choices that are in conformity with the gospel and the teaching of the Catholic Church.

However, as PinkNews also reported, the Church tried to fire a primary school headteacher in 2007 for entering into a same-sex civil partnership, but was advised it would be in violation of Britain’s Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations. The religious exceptions in that policy only apply to employees whose purpose is advancing “organized religion,” not any employees who work for a religious organization. Notably, the UK’s Catholic Schools are mostly state-funded.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Nichols admitted that the Church refuses to acknowledge that gay people even exist.

Economy

Austerity Pushes British Economy Toward Triple-Dip Recession

By Travis Waldron on Jan 25, 2013 at 9:25 am

The conservative Tory government’s austerity policies are pushing the United Kingdom toward an unprecedented triple-dip recession, as the UK’s economy contracted 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. If the economy slumps again in the first quarter of this year, the two consecutive quarters of losses will mark Britain’s third recession in four years.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and George Osborne, the nation’s finance minister, eschewed stimulative policies when the Great Recession began, choosing instead to pursue swift deficit reduction to address the nation’s long-term debt. The result has been unfortunate: as this chart from the Guardian shows, the British economy has now contracted in four of the past five quarters (the London Olympics, which helped the British economy, occurred during the one quarter of growth):

When he instituted the first round of austerity in 2010, Osborne said his package of tax increases and spending cuts would reduce the deficit from 4.8 percent of Britain’s economy to just 1.9 percent. Three years and a second recession later, the deficit is at 4.3 percent. But even as his plan to revive the economy to reduce deficits has led to further recessions, Osborne remains steadfast in his belief that deficit reduction is the correct path to follow:

George Osborne said he would not “run away” from the problems facing the UK economy: “We have a reminder today that Britain faces a very difficult economic situation. A reminder that last year was particularly difficult, that we face problems at home because of the debts built up over many years and problems abroad with the eurozone, where we export most of our products, in recession.”

While the British raced to austerity, the United States turned to stimulus in 2009. Instead of pushing us into a second recession, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act turned around the American economy, which has far outperformed the British economy ever since:

Still, President Obama’s second attempt to stimulate the economy, the American Jobs Act, was blocked by Republicans, and Washington has turned its attention toward immediate deficit reduction since, even as unemployment remains stubbornly high and the economic recovery is far from robust.

LGBT

Prominent British Evangelical Pastor Endorses Same-Sex Unions

By Zack Ford on Jan 16, 2013 at 10:55 am

Steve Chalke, a prominent Baptist minister in the United Kingdom and an “icon among Evangelicals,” has published an essay supporting monogamous relationships for same-sex couples. Though he stops just short of calling for same-sex marriage, Chalke decries the Church’s history of demonizing gay people, calling it “a matter of integrity” to support those who form loving couples and family units:

One tragic outworking of the Church’s historical rejection of faithful gay relationships is our failure to provide homosexual people with any model of how to cope with their sexuality, except for those who have the gift of, or capacity for, celibacy. In this way we have left people vulnerable and isolated. When we refuse to make room for gay people to live in loving, stable relationships, we consign them to lives of loneliness, secrecy, fear and even of deceit. It’s one thing to be critical of a promiscuous lifestyle – but shouldn’t the Church consider nurturing positive models for permanent and monogamous homosexual relationships? [...]

Too often, those who seek to enter an exclusive, same-sex relationship have found themselves stigmatised and excluded by the Church. I have come to believe this is an injustice and out of step with God’s character as seen through Christ. I leave it to others to debate whether a Civil Partnership plus a dedication and blessing should equal a marriage or not. But I do believe that the Church has a God given responsibility to include those who have for so long found themselves excluded.

After pointing out that the Bible verses used to condemn homosexuality in no way represent modern-day gay and lesbian Christians, Chalke implores the faith community to consider the consequences of continuing to stigmatize the LGBT community:

I believe that when we treat homosexual people as pariahs and push them outside our communities and churches; when we blame them for who they are; when we deny them our blessing on their commitment to lifelong, faithful relationships, we make them doubt whether they are children of God, made in his image.

The pastoral situation, however, is still more pressing than this. The issue of any church’s attitudes to homosexuality has huge impact, not only on those individuals who are lesbian or gay, but also on their parents, siblings, wider families, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Tragically, I know well a family torn apart (in an all too typical scenario) because the Christian parents of a daughter entering a Civil Partnership – as a result of the teaching they had received – refused to attend the ceremony. Their daughter – also a committed Christian – who had taken years to find the courage to be honest with them about her sexuality (for fear of their response) felt betrayed. Brothers and sister took different sides. Neighbours, work colleagues, church members and friends all joined in. Thus a rift was created which has left in its wake much sadness and pain, a catalogue of broken or strained relationships and some very deep regrets.

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