Policy Areas - Sex and Gender

This is a summary list of all the content in the site categorised within the Sex and Gender policy area.

  • 27 Jun
    2009

    A Christian organisation based in the United States has attracted international criticism after it posted a video on YouTube showing church elders trying to “cast out a spirit” from a gay sixteen-year-old.

  • 17 Jun
    2009

    Commenting on Church of England and Roman Catholic lobbying for "the right to discriminate" in relation to employment and the new Equality Bill, Simon Barrow, co-director of the religion and societ

  • 17 Jun
    2009

    C of E and the Catholic representatives have told the House of Commons they will fight to maintain their powers to discriminate in cases of employment and against limits proposed in the Equality Bill.

  • 11 Jun
    2009

    Another classic from Steve Chalke, founder of Faithworks, which may not go down well with some of his more conservative colleagues.

  • 31 May
    2009

    The Equality Bill 2008-2009, which will extend both to England and Wales, and to Scotland, covers age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. It also requires public authorities to do more to tackle the effects of socio-economic disadvantage. The Bill has received a hostile response among some religious groups, while the response of the large churches (including the Church of England) has been to welcome its principal aims while contesting aspects of its detail - particularly in terms of lobbying for opt-outs and provisions which would allow continued discrimination on grounds of sexuality and gender by faith bodies on grounds of 'upholding beliefs'. In this paper, Savitri Hensman assesses the issues and suggests that the churches need to move forward positively, on theological and practical grounds, in affirming comprehensive equalities in the public sphere. She also tackles the harm that discrimination and inequality causes, not least to the most vulnerable and those suffering prejudice.

  • 27 May
    2009

    California’s Supreme Court has upheld a ban on same-sex marriage, disappointing gay rights campaigners across the USA, who took to the streets in solidarity. The California Council of Churches has condemned the Court’s decision.

  • 22 May
    2009

    A strong statement from a range of evangelical organizations has called on the Church of Scotland to affirm the membership and ministry of gay people in the church on biblical and traditional grounds - in opposition to anti-gay activists.

  • 18 May
    2009

    People resisting progress towards rights for all have stolen the language of religion, warned Peter Purton of the Trades Union Congress, opening a conference on faith, homophobia, transphobia and human rights in London on Saturday.

  • 15 May
    2009

    Church of Scotland members have been horrified by a hard-line minister’s attempt to equate the inclusion of gay people in the Church with Nazism, say those involved in preparing for the denomination's upcoming General Assembly.

  • 13 May
    2009

    A major London conference this weekend will seek to show that people of faith and those with non-religious beliefs can be united in common purpose and action to eliminate prejudice and discrimination on grounds of sexuality and identity.

  • 11 May
    2009

    ‘Men-women’ have become the criminalized ‘homosexuals’ of Senegal, a ‘gay’ man is left unburied, and the transsexual teenager lives with the medical diagnosis of ‘psychosis’, writesMelissa Conroy. So what is 'normal' and what part does religion play in defining it?

  • 7 May
    2009

    The Anglican Consultative Council has been meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, writes Savi Hensman. But when will Christians really learn the harsh lessons about how hatred and homophobia are inimical to the Gospel?

  • 7 May
    2009

    The Anglican Consultative Council heard a report on the Listening Process around the sexuality debate yesterday.

  • 27 Apr
    2009
    A protestor at the Sex and the City conference

    Over 100 protestors including both gay and heterosexual Christians gathered in London on Saturday to demonstrate peacefully against a conference promoting ‘cures’ for lesbian and gay people.

  • 8 Apr
    2009

    Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a Catholic convert, has said that the Vatican should rethink its negative and "entrenched" attitudes towards homosexuality.

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