By all means let Catholics welcome the Pope to Britain and fund his visit, says Peter Tatchell. But whether he should be honoured with a State Visit at taxpayer's expense is another matter and raises a wider range of concerns.
Channel Four Television has announced that human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will present an hour-long documentary on the Pope, to be broadcast before his state visit.
President Bingu of Malawi has pardoned the couple, Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, who were recently senenced to 14 years hard labour on charges of homosexuality.
Human rights advocates have reacted with revulsion at the decision of a Malawian court to imprison Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga for being a same-sex couple.
The news that human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell is to speak at this year’s Greenbelt Arts Festival, was met by a small number of conservative Christians with a call for a boycott, on the grounds that the Christian event is being ‘gayified’. Others have expressed puzzlement as to why an atheist like Tatchell would want to speak, when he has previously attacked the church’s unjust practices.
Charges against a Christian street preacher who condemned homosexuality have been dropped, shortly after a gay rights campaigner offered to testify in his defence.