Evangelical registrar appeal refused

Lillian Ladele, the Islington registrar who refused to conduct same-sex Civil Partnerships on religious grounds, has been refused leave to appeal against the decision of an Employment Tribunal that she did not suffer religious discrimination at work. She has also been ordered to pay costs.

The National Secular Society has commended Islington Council for standing firm in its defence of equality against considerable pressure from the media and religious activists.

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the NSS, said: “Religious campaigners are trying relentlessly to reverse hard-won equality rights or give religious employees carte blanche to exempt themselves from the laws and regulations that apply to everyone else. It was notable that while Miss Ladele drew the line at officiating at same-sex partnerships, her Biblical conscience seemed untroubled about conducting marriages for people who had been divorced”.

Islington was also battling against considerable odds. These cases are being fought with huge determination and massive funds from evangelical Christian groups.

However, none of the cases have so far been successful, and the repeated failure begins to make this campaign to obtain special privileges for Christians at work look like bravado.

The case of the family court judge in Sheffield who didn’t want to deal with gay couples was thrown out, as was the case of the Relate counsellor who did not want to offer sexual counselling to gay couples. Nadia Eweida, the woman who sued BA because she claimed they had discriminated against her after she wore a cross over her uniform, also lost her case. Far from being a victim, Ms Eweida was described by the Employment Tribunal as a nightmare employee who made unreasonable demands, unfounded accusations and was insulting to her colleagues when they didn’t share her religious beliefs.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service should have taken a leaf out of Islington’s book and fought a case brought against them by a Catholic firefighter who refused to provide fire safety literature to gay people. Instead of seeing the case through, the Council settled out of court.

Last week Andrea Minichiello Williams, a lawyer who is behind the Christian Legal Centre — one of the primary groups bringing these actions — sent out an appeal to supporters asking for more money. She said that the group couldn’t continue beyond the end of March unless considerable new funding was forthcoming.

Let us hope that this signals the end of this Christian campaign against equality and fair play, and that these evangelicals will accept that they are not entitled to special privileges at work – privileges that inevitably come at someone else’s expense.

6 March 2009