“The American humourist PJ O’Rourke once said that it was funny how those who wanted to share their religious views with you, never wanted you to share yours with them. The European Court of Human Rights is about to have to share its views with all of us: this week it is hearing four cases on religion and the law.”
Halsbury’s Law Exchange, 4th September 2012
Source: www.halsburyslawexchange.co.uk
“The owners of a guesthouse who refused to allow a gay couple to stay in a double-bedded room have won permission to take their case to the Supreme Court.”
The Guardian, 14th August 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“A company can be liable for unwanted comments made on the Facebook account of an employee by colleagues, providing that the actions ‘fall within the course of employment’, an employment tribunal has found.”
OUT-LAW.com, 20th July 2012
Source: www.out-law.com
“Speech given by Lynne Featherstone on 27 March 2012, on combating discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.”
Home Office, 27th March 2012
Source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
“‘Will both teacher and pupils simply become the next victims of the tyranny of tolerance, heretics, whose dissent from state-imposed orthodoxy must be crushed at all costs?’, asked Cardinal O’Brien in his controversial Telegraph article on gay-marriage. He was suggesting that changing the law to allow gay marriage would affect education as it would preclude a teacher from telling pupils that marriage can only mean a heterosexual union. He later insinuated that the change might lead to students being given material such as an ‘explicit manual of homosexual advocacy entitled The Little Black Book: Queer in the 21st Century.'”
UK Human Rights Blog, 13th March 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Two Christian guesthouse owners are considering taking their legal fight against rulings of discrimination to the Supreme Court.”
BBC News, 12th March 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Gay couples will finally win the right to marry, Downing Street insisted last night, despite an escalating campaign of opposition led by a former Archbishop of Canterbury and some Conservative MPs.”
The Independent, 21st February 2012
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“A gay black police officer who accused Scotland Yard of racial and sexual discrimination has won his case at an employment tribunal, which also found that another officer deliberately leaked a ‘distorted account’ of the claim to the Sun newspaper.”
The Guardian, 20th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“On 10th February 2012, the Court of Appeal upheld a Judge’s ruling that a Christian couple, Peter and Hazelmary Bull, had discriminated against Martin Hall and Steven Preddy on grounds of sexual orientation when they refused them a double-bedded room at their hotel near Penzance.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 19th February 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
“Following the news recently it would seem that the UK is convulsed by a raging battle between religious observers and, in the words of Baroness Warsi, militant secularists. On the same day, the High Court ruled that Christian prayers held before a council meeting were unlawful, and the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court that two Christian hotel owners had discriminated against gay clients by not offering them a double room.”
UK Human Rights Blog, 19th February 2012
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
Preddy and another v Bull and another [2012] EWCA Civ 83; [2012] WLR (D) 30
“By operating a policy of restricting occupancy of double-bedded rooms in their hotel to married couples, the defendants had discriminated directly against the claimant, a homosexual couple. The defendants’ policy, dictated by their religious belief that it was sinful for heterosexual or homosexual couples to have sexual relations outside marriage, was not protected under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 because the former could be married but the latter could not. The restriction was therefore absolute in relation to homosexuals but not in relation to heterosexuals, and constituted discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. No individual was entitled to manifest his religious belief when and where he chose so as to obtain exemption in all circumstances from some legislative provisions of general application. Furthermore, by virtue of article 9(2 ) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the right to manifest one’s own religious belief, as opposed to the right to hold it, was qualified by such ‘limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society … for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others’ such as the claimants’ rights which were protected under the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.”
WLR Daily, 10th February 2012
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
“Two Christian guesthouse owners who were ordered to pay damages after refusing to allow a gay couple to stay in a double room have lost their appeal. The challenge by Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who run Chymorvah House in Marazion, Cornwall, was rejected by three judges in the court of appeal in London.”
The Guardian, 10th February 2012
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Devout Christian hotel owners who refused to allow a gay couple to share a double room have insisted at the appeal court that they should have been allowed to impose the ban.”
The Guardian, 8th November 2011
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
“Last night, Wycombe Wanderers became the first football club to sign the Charter against homophobia and transphobia in sport.”
Home Office, 26th October 2011
Source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk
“The equivalent of around 100 primary school pupils a day were reported to local authorities after using offensive language in lessons and the playground, it is claimed. In some cases, pupils were reprimanded for relatively trivial squabbles and employing insults such as ‘gaylord’ and ‘broccoli head’. Researchers said many children – some as young as four – are being reported despite being ‘unlikely to understand the meaning of these words’. Schools are obliged to report all ‘hate speech’ incidents to local authorities as part of the 2000 Race Relations Act.”
Daily Telegraph, 14th September 2011
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
“A Jamaican lesbian has won the right to stay in the UK after immigration judges ruled she risks persecution if she returns to her home country.”
BBC News, 6th July 2011
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“Couples in civil partnerships should have the same pension rights as married couples according to the European Court of Justice, backing the approach already taken in the UK.”
OUT-LAW.com, 11th May 2011
Source: www.out-law.com
“A Catholic adoption agency has been told it cannot discriminate against gay couples in the latest outcome of an ongoing legal battle that has pitted the rights of same sex parents against religious groups who want to opt-out of anti-discrimination legislation.”
The Independent, 26th April 2011
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“A gay lawyer who discovered a note from one of his firm’s partners that accused him of giving work to his ‘batty boy mate’ has won a discrimination fight against the firm.”
The Lawyer, 28th March 2011
Source: www.thelawyer.com
“A homosexual couple who successfully sued the Christian owners of a hotel who refused them a bed are withdrawing a claim for more compensation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission said today.”
The Independent, 11th March 2011
Source: www.independent.co.uk
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