Homophobic Lillian Ladele wins her case against gays

A marriage registrar was harassed for refusing to conduct same-sex ceremonies, a tribunal has ruled.

Lillian Ladele, who said the civil partnership ceremonies went against her Christian faith, hailed the decision as a “victory for religious liberty”.

The tribunal ruled that Miss Ladele was discriminated against on grounds of religious beliefs and was harassed.

Islington council said it was “disappointed” and was considering an appeal against the ruling.

Until December 2007 registrars in Islington effectively worked on a freelance basis and could swap with each other to avoid same-sex ceremonies14 But since then they have been under direct control of the local authority which, it is claimed, has led to far less flexibility about the registrars’ responsibilities.

Miss Ladele said she was being effectively forced to choose between her religion and her £31,000-a-year job as a result.

She said she was picked on, shunned and accused of being homophobic for refusing to carry out civil partnerships.

Miss Ladele said: “I am delighted at this decision.

“It is a victory for religious liberty, not just for myself but for others in a similar position to mine.

“Gay rights should not be used as an excuse to bully and harass people over their religious beliefs,” she said.

Councillor John Gilbert, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Human Resources, said: “We’re clearly disappointed with the result, as we consider our approach was the right one.

“We are now considering the judgment carefully in order to decide whether we should appeal.

This is a disaster for several reasons:

• I’m sorry her religion prohibits her from treating all citizens as equals, but that really is her problem.
• She wasn’t performing same sex marriage, in the UK we still can’t get married.
• When do religious views that require discrimination stop becoming acceptable? I’m not sure a fundamental Muslim would be allowed to refuse service to a woman in the UK solely on the basis if her being a woman.
• She’s not the victim although she has taken on that role very convincingly. New found gay rights in the UK are at risk from this ruling.
• She whines that she was effectively being forced to choose between her job and her religion and YES she was. If her chosen religion restricts her ability to perform her job that is her own choice. Get another job.

Written by TechStickle on July 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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Go Brian!

A second American political strategist has been appointed to Brian Paddick’s campaign to become the first Lib Dem Mayor of London.

Nominations for Mayor close today and the election will be held on May 1st.

Jerome Armstrong, sometimes called the Blogfather, will be the campaign’s web strategist. He was instrumental in US Presidential hopeful Howard Dean’s grassroots campaign in 2004, regarded as the first major campaign to effectively use the internet to fundraise and win support.

Written by TechStickle on April 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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Ding Dong the witch is dead

A member of the House of Lords who used his Roman Catholic faith to frustrate his own party’s gay rights legislation has died.

Lord Stallard of St Pancras was 86. He was known throughout his career as Jock, a reference to his upbringing in Lanarkshire, Scotland.

A left-wing presence on the Labour benches, he was first elected to represent St Pancras North at the 1970 general election.

Just four years, when the party returned to government, Albert Stallard became a PPS to a minister of state at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and was quickly promoted to minister for housing and construction. He also served as a whip.

After being passed over for selection for a re-drawn seat of Holborn and St Pancras in 1983 in favour of younger Labour candidate Frank Dobson, Stallard was appointed to the House of Lords.

There he opposed compulsory sex education in schools, the 1990 Embryology bill and along with many peers of his generation, felt homophobia was not just acceptable but the teachings of his religion.

A devout Roman Catholic, during debates in the Lords on the equalisation of the age of consent in 2000 he compared homosexuality to child abuse and attacked the Blair government for threatening to impose the will of the Commons on the Lords by way of the Parliament Act.

“The one thing I cannot come to terms with is the concept that homosexuality must be equated with heterosexuality and that homosexual couples must be equated with married couples,” he said.

“That is not the case and … the heterosexual relationship must be emphasised.

“That is the basis of the society that I know and the basis of the society that I espouse and one that I shall continue to espouse.”

He also admitted during the same debate:

“I have to accept that I come from a different world, background, education, environment and beliefs from some of my younger friends.

“Now there is a much wider gap between the generations than was ever the case in the past.

“Those of us who still hold firm to Christian morals and beliefs find it difficult suddenly to overthrow them and become so lackadaisical of anything that is decent.

“That seems to be the conduct of the new generation–the “www dot com” thing.”

Lord Stallard is survived by his wife Sheila and two children.

Written by TechStickle on April 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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Gay Iranian May Escape Execution

The UK granted a temporary reprieve from deportation to a gay Iranian teen, while they review his previously rejected asylum application. Mehdi Kazemigot, claims he will be executed upon return to Iran. While in England studying English, Mehdi got the word that his boyfriend had been hanged back home on account of his homosexuality. Before being executed, his boyfriend named Mehdi as his partner.

Since 1979, 4,000 gay and lesbian Iranians have been executed. Last year, while speaking at Columbia University, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked laughter, and outrage, when he pronounced that Iran does not have the homosexual “phenomenon.”

Today’s “cooked” elections, which excluded all reform candidates, will yield little change in Iran. Do you think countries like England have an obligation to act as a safe haven for people like Mehdi?

Written by TechStickle on March 15th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’m Gay now get over it

HOMOPHOBIC bullying in schools is being targeted in a poster campaign across Teesside.

Huge red and white billboards saying: “Some people are gay. Get over it!” are being displayed throughout Middlesbrough in a two-week campaign to raise awareness.

Launched by gay rights organisation Stonewall, in London, by Torchwood star John Barrowman, the national campaign aims to crack down on bullying.

A total of 600 posters are being rolled out across the country.

It is part of Stonewall’s Education For All campaign. The slogan was designed after consulting 150 schools.

Ben Summerskill, Stonewall chief executive, said: “Homophobia is almost endemic in our schools and blights the lives of people throughout society.

“It makes sense that this zero-tolerance message should be extended to the wider public.”

But not everyone agrees.

Actor and sexual health worker James Wood is a gay Teesside man who came out when he was 17.

He remembers being bullied on a number of occasions and thinks the posters may have the opposite effect.

He said: “I don’t think the posters are a good idea.

“It’s too confrontational and won’t do gay people any favours.

“There are other ways to reach young people by going into schools and youth groups.

“I can remember being bullied three times in particular at school and at college.

“The type of people who are not gay friendly are not suddenly going to look at the posters and think ‘I won’t go out gay bashing, I’ll sit in and listen to Kylie.’

“I think if there are going to be posters for gay people then why not have them for everyone - women, old people, ethnic minorities and stop discrimination for them too?

“The posters will not change the views of those they are aimed at - it could have the opposite effect.”

More than 5,000 posters, stickers and postcards have been distributed to schools.

Written by TechStickle on February 20th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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Spanish gay rights activists protest against conservative opposition’s stance

MADRID, Spain: Scores of gay demonstrators gathered outside the conservative opposition party’s headquarters on Saturday to oppose its plans to withdraw their newly won rights.

Gay groups are concerned that, if voted into power in the March 9 general election, the Popular Party will reverse legislation allowing them the right to marry and to adopt children.

“We’re gathering to ask the PP to change its homophobic attitude,” said Antonio Poveda, president of Spain’s Federation of Gays and Lesbians.

“We’ve fought hard to achieve equal rights and are appalled by this party’s stated wish to turn the clock back to Spain’s repressive past,” Poveda said.

The Socialist government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero legalized gay marriage in July 2005 and passed legislation allowing gay couples to adopt.

The PP immediately appealed against the laws at the Constitutional Court and its leaders have pledged that if elected they will overturn adoption rights and downgrade gay marriage to a civil union.

Protesters carried banners reading “Rights are fought for. We are for a secular State,” “No to religious dictatorship” and “Democracy is a daily battle.”

The PP is backed by Spain’s staunchly conservative Catholic Church.

Besides Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and Belgium have legalized same-sex marriage, while Britain and some other European countries have laws that give same-sex couples rights to form legally binding partnerships.

In the United States, Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay couples to marry. Oregon this month became the ninth U.S. state to approve spousal rights for some gay couples.

Written by TechStickle on February 20th, 2008 with no comments.
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Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker at Wimbledon

David and I went to Wimbledon this week to see Matt Bourne’s, The Nutcracker (well we booked it at Christmas).
The tale opens in Dr Dross’s Academy for Waifs and Strays on Christmas Eve, a horrid grey orphanage that pays lip service to the festive season. We meet our heroine and Dr Dross’s awful children. Then the Nutcracker appears and we’re transported to a frozen lake for skating and snow where our heroine loses her love. She follows him to Sweetieland and his marriage to her rival and then … ah well, you’ll have to see it to find out what happens next.

After the grey of the orphanage and the white of the frozen lake, the fabulous colours of Sweetieland are a psychedelic lure to the eyes and the palette.

In Sweetieland, we meet a slightly different cast of characters than we might have been led to expect by the version that this one lampoons. Mother Ginger has been remastered into a hefty licorice security guard who defends an obscene, glitter-lipped, uvula-revealing open mouth that is the backdrop. The sparkling orifice is the point of entry for all the high-end candy, so long as it has a ticket to ride. Clara, being at the lowest end of the pecking order, has no such ticket. She spends the entire divertissement segment attempting to dissemble her way in, by gamely dancing along with the equivalents of Spanish, Marzipan and an over-the-top solo Arabian, where the mustachioed dancer is costumed in a smoking jacket and an ascot, with a whip of meringue topped by a cherry for a coiffure. Chinese is inexplicably retred as a Marshmallow number, and to the music for Russian, we are treated to a raucous faux macho Motorcycle gang of Gobstoppers, whose tripak jumps simulate sex and cycling.

The leads might be twirling away up front but the others are always up to something in the background so you never know where to look. I loved the two blond cupids (Im sure I have seen these two on the dance floor at Mardi Gras) in their glasses and stripey pyjamas and also Mr Nickerbockerglory with his hair of cream topped by a cherry - he was also very purvy trying to seduce our heroine and licking everything and everyone in sight. He was even in character when he came out for his bow at the end, which was a nice touch.

I couldn’t help smiling and grinning throughout the performance, eyes agawp and fingers twirling my beard into dreadlocks. I *want* a battenburg jacket. And cake.

I loved it. It was sumptuous, a feast for the senses and a wonderful way to celebrate the Christmas season.

Written by TechStickle on February 14th, 2008 with no comments.
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David in Borough Markets Saturday

Written by techstickle on November 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
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Girlie at Duckie

Written by techstickle on October 10th, 2007 with no comments.
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London sky in october

A great sky last night taken from our apartment and blogged directly from my phone through Shozu.

Written by techstickle on October 9th, 2007 with no comments.
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