THEGAYUK

Tag: Religion

The latest religious news affecting the LGBT community in the UK and internationally.

  • Disgraced Rugby Player Israel Folau wants $10 million

    The disgraced rugby player, Israel Folau has launched a $10 million lawsuit against Rugby Australia.

    Israel Folau was dismissed from his position at Rugby Australia earlier this year after a series of homophobic tweets surfaced. At the time he was one of the highest-paid sportspeople in Australian sport.

    In April the Australian Rugby Union served Israel Folau with a contract ending breach notice, following on from offensive social media posts, one of which said that “hell awaits” gay people and bashing transgender people, using his Christian beliefs as a defence for his views.

    In June Folau and Rugby Australia entered mediation at a Fair Work Commission hearing. There was no resolution after a near four-hour meeting.

    Now Folau has apparently filed a lawsuit and wants a cool $10 million in compensation from Rugby Australia to cover the loss of sponsorship and potential future contracts.

    Free Speech, Religious Freedoms or both?

    Under the Fair Work Act, it is not legal to sack an employee for an employee’s religion. Folau’s suit is a test case in this area and could determine “whether the word ‘religion’ should be interpreted to include protection for an employee’s religious expression and activities” according to employment layer Josh Bornstein.

    Many of Folau’s supporters have raised concerns over whether the player’s right to free speech was curbed.

  • Arrest made after homophobic abuse shouted at Pride event

    Arrest made after homophobic abuse shouted at Pride event

    A woman in her late 30s has been arrested following a homophobic incident at a Pride event over the weekend.

    A 38-year-old woman has been arrested in connection to homophobic abuse levelled at pride attendees last weekend. Footage emerged of a woman dressed in a niqab shouting “shame” and “despicable” at pride goers in Waltham Forest.

    In the video, which has been seen over 3.6 millions times taken, she could be heard shouting, “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

    “Shame on you, shame on all of you.

    “Shame on you, you despicable people. Shame on you, you shameless people.

    Arrested under section 4a of the Public Order Act

    The Metropolitan Police’s Waltham Forest Twitter account said on Monday: “Officers investigating footage circulating on social media of abuse directed at those taking part in a Pride event in Waltham Forest have arrested a 38-year-old woman under section 4a of the Public Order Act.

    She has been taken into custody at a north London police station.”

     

  • Woman in Niqab seen shouting “SHAME” at LGBT+ people at Pride event

    Woman in Niqab seen shouting “SHAME” at LGBT+ people at Pride event

    A woman dressed in a full-face veil seen shouting “shame” and other homophobic slurs at participants of a pride event in London.

    Police are investigating after footage emerged purportedly showing a woman in a niqab shouting homophobic abuse at a pride parade in Waltham Forest, London over the weekend.

    The woman in the traditional strict Islamic niqab can be heard screaming “shame on you” and “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve”, before yelling “shame” repeatedly and calling the attendees “despicable”.

    The attendee was being protected by a pride volunteer.

    The identity of the alleged abuser is obscured by the full-face veil. Police are investigating the incident. The footage has now been watched over 3.6 million times.

    A police spokesperson told The Independent: “We are aware of footage circulating on social media of abuse directed at those taking part in the Waltham Forest Pride event and enquiries are taking place.

    “Abusing someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is a hate crime and we would encourage victims and those who were there when this took place to come forward.

    “If you have been verbally or physically abused, harassed or attacked in any way by someone because you are or they think you are LGBT+ please report these crimes to the police.”

    The footage was captured by Twitter used, Yusuf Patel

    Police have responded by tweeting that they are aware of the footage and ‘enquiries are underway”.

     

  • Parents seek to move or home educate their children over No Outsiders classes

    Parents seek to move or home educate their children over No Outsiders classes

    Parents of children at the Parkfield Primary school have said that they plan to home educate or move their children to a different school.

    • Parents say they will home school their children

    • Parents say they held a mass walkout of their children on the 12th of July

    • Say they feel victimised and discriminated against

    • Offer an apology to the LGBT community

    In a statement, parents of children at Parkfield Primary School on the Alum Rock Community Forum have said that they will homeschool or move their children out of the school because of the No Outsiders programme. They have also said that they have felt discriminated against over the “hijacking” of their children’s education.

    Parkfield Primary, where 98 percent of pupils are Muslim, has become the centre of a row over whether children should be taught about same-sex relationships and differing gender expressions via a programme called No Outsiders.

    The No Outsiders programme deals with social issues, race, religion, gender identity, age and disabilities, however, the parent’s protests have seemingly become a one issue protest, over the LGBT+ aspects of the lessons.

    Despite this, the parents claim in their statement that they “unequivocally condemn” the labels of bigots and homophobes that have been levelled against them since their protests and demonstrations were reported on back in March.

    They wrote, “We would like to reach out once again to our LGBT community to clear up any misconception, build bridges and strength [sic] our bond in this diverse community by offering our apology for any actions that may have upset them as this was not our intention”.

    Considering homeschooling

    Parents say that they feel that they’re not being listened, reaching an “impasse” with the school’s leadership team – saying that the school has an “unwillingness to build, repair and bridge this important relationship with parents”.

    The statement continues, “therefore as a consequence… are currently seeking to move their children to alternative local schools and considering homeschooling option to best sever [sic] the needs of their children’s educational needs”.

  • Parents at Parkfield School say they’ll protest every Thursday until No Outsiders is cancelled

    Protesting parents outside Parkfield Primary school in Birmingham have said that they protest every Thursday until the pro-LGBT+ equality lessons provided by the school are cancelled permanently.

    Parents of children at the Parkfield Primary School in Birmingham have said that they will protest outside the school grounds every Thursday until equality lessons, called No Outsiders, dealing with LGBT+ issues are cancelled permanently.

    The school is due to provide just five of its No Outsider lessons for its students over the course of the year.

    Last week around 600 children were removed by their parents in protest to the planned lessons. The school has said that it will continue with the lessons next term.

    A crowd of parents and their children gathered outside the school this morning from around 8:20 AM with at least three speakers present, including one from an American Christian organisation, who congratulated the parents on their protest. The protests have taken places for around four weeks.

    There was also a large media presence and police presence at the demonstration.

    The protest was filmed and streamed on Facebook live.

    Parents at the school have suggested that the lessons are “not age appropriate” and that they infringe of their children’s belief as well as their own religious beliefs and suggesting that the lessons were a “safeguarding issue”.

  • Mother argues boys need protection against “male genital mutilation”

    ‘He has been mutilated and suffered permanent damage.’

    Mother argues boys need protection against "male genital mutilation"
    Mother argues boys need protection against “male genital mutilation”

    A mother is suing a doctor after her baby son was circumcised, allegedly without her permission. The 26-year-old mother is planning to sue the doctor after her son, was left in pain, bleeding and unable to wear a nappy.

    The boy was reportedly taken to the doctor, by his paternal grandmother.

    The baby’s parents are separated and the father is not named on the boy’s birth certificate, but was allowed visitations to his son. In 2013 the Nottinghamshire mother left her baby with its father during the Eid festival, and allegedly his mother took the boy to be circumcised, according to The Sunday Times.

    Male genital mutilation “an unnecessary assault”

    If the boy’s mother is successful, campaigners say that it could open the floodgates to other victims of “male genital mutilation”, who claim that the circumcision procedure was done without their permission as children, before they could decide whether they wanted the operation or not.

    The mother claims that her son, neither can be named for legal reasons, was left in pain saying that her son was “mutilated and suffered permanent damage.”

    The mother made a complaint to the police and also to the General Medical Council in 2013, when the operation took place, however, the police found there was “insufficient evidence” for a successful prosecution. The mother’s lawyer, Saimo Chahal QC, is seeking to “Crown Prosecution Service’s decision last November not to prosecute”.

    Chahal QC said, ‘This mother clearly did not consent to her son undergoing the circumcision procedure, which could constitute a criminal offence.

    ‘While some people with religious beliefs see circumcision as normal, there are others who see it as an unnecessary assault which can be physically and psychologically harmful.’

    It is currently illegal to perform female genital mutilation. There are no such laws in place for males.

  • Westboro Baptist Church protests gay teenage high school football player

    High school students and staff are standing behind a gay football player after the notorious Westboro Baptist Church protested the teenager on March 12. The targeted student is a senior at the John Burroughs School in the St. (more…)

  • Man confesses to killing two gay men and two others after starting a Jihad

    Ali Muhammad Brown has admitted to the murder of four men, some of whom he believed were gay.

    Ali Muhammad Brown has shocked a court in the US after he admitted to killing numerous men, some because he thought they were gay. At first, Brown admitted to killing a 19-year-old, Brendan Tevlin in New Jersey.

    Brown then confessed to killing three other men, two of them because it was his belief that they were gay.

    In July 2014 it was thought that Brown may have used a social app to meet with at least two men. The victims had been enjoying an evening at R Place, a popular gay nightclub on Capitol Hill, in Washington State. Initial autopsies suggest that the victims were ‘essentially executed’, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Wyman Yip said.

    Prosecutors say that two of the Washington victims, Ahmed Said, 27 and Dwone Anderson-Young 23, were targeted and lured via a social app.

    Brown is already serving a 35-year term for an armed robbery.

    “Jihad”

    If Brown is convicted he will given the death penalty. The prosecutor’s office said: “In his statement to the court today Brown admitted that the killings were a part of what he described as a ‘jihad.’”

    Jamel Semper, who led the prosecution in New Jersey, said that Brown had “grievously harmed families and terrorised entire communities across the country.

    “This defendant is no martyr.

    “He’s just an admitted terrorist who will now spend the rest of his life in prison.”

    He will be sentenced on the 1st May.

  • BREAKING: US Preacher, Billy Graham dies aged 99

    One of the United States most influential preachers, Billy Graham has died at the age of 99.

    Billy Graham, a preacher who believed that homosexuality could be cured and that same-sex marriage should be banned, has died at the age of 99. In his 60 year career as a preacher, it is thought that he preached to over 210 million people.

    On his website, he once wrote an advice column,for someone who found out that a loved one was gay, he wrote, “We want to assure you that any willing person can be liberated from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ”.

    The BBC have reported his death and that he died at his home in Montreat, North Carolina

    This is a developing story.

     

     

  • Catholic group criticises Tom Daley for baby news

    “Tom Daley’s baby will be deliberately deprived of a mother”

    Without knowing any of the facts surrounding the birth of a baby for Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black, a spokesperson for the  Catholic pressure group, Catholic Voices has described the decision for Tom and Dustin to have a child is depriving the baby of a mother and its loss of identity.

    Neither Tom or Dustin have announced whether a mother will be involved in the upbringing of their child, nor have they released any details on whether they are using a surrogate mother.

    It’s also not known whether the mother involved has asked for anonymity.

    On Valentine’s Day, both Tom and Dustin released a picture of an ultrasound, featuring a baby. The news was met with both praise and horrendous homophobia.

    Elizabeth Howard from Catholic Voices told news outlet, Christian Today, “A baby is always a blessing and someone of inestimable value.

    “However, Tom Daley’s baby will be deliberately deprived of a mother, and no matter how much Tom Daley and his partner love the baby, it will not make up for the enormous loss inflicted on him or her.”

    Ms Howard describes herself as a “donor-conceived person” and said that growing up without her genetic parent meant she felt a “huge loss of identity” and had a sense of “not belonging”.

    Catholic Voices describes itself as a project to “improve the Church’s representation in the media”.

    Why are the Christians so obsessed with Tom Daley?

    This isn’t the first time a Christian based group has criticised Tom Daley.  In 2016 an article claimed that Tom was “seduced into sodomy” after the tragic death of his father.

    The article by Stephen Green argued, that a “degree in psychology” wasn’t needed to work out why Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black were in a relationship together.

    Stephen Green wrote, “Tom Daley, he was seduced into sodomy by an older man, not very long after the untimely death of his beloved father.  You don’t need a degree in psychology to work out what’s going on there.”

     

     

     

     

     

  • Gay teacher fired by Catholic school after wedding

    A Miami teacher returned to work after celebrating her wedding to her partner only to get fired from her job. The Catholic school teacher, Jocelyn Morffi, posted photos her marriage last weekend to Facebook and was fired from the Saints Peter and Paul Catholic School on Thursday after returning to work the day before. “This weekend… (more…)