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.

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.

Six churches and Christian groups have spoken out against US anti-gay hate group Westboro Baptist Church, who proposed to picket in the UK on Friday. But some of them have been challenged about their own policies.

In a campaign comment ahead of today's election in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe has condemned Archbishop Rowan Williams as lacking a "moral compass" and said that gays in the church are a sign of "moral degeneracy".