Christian Voice nutter, Stephen Green, has been noted arguing a particularly reprehensible line of reasoning. You don't get much lower than this.

From the Guardian:

On Sunday evening, a lone campaigner stood outside St Mary's church, Putney. Stephen Green, a haggard and unshaven figure, obsessed and weighed down by the wickedness of modern Britain, handed out leaflets warning of the consequences of same-sex love, while announcing to anyone who would listen: Homosexuality and sexual immorality is all on a continuum with paedophilia, bestiality, adultery, child-sacrifice. You are saying it is all OK.

Love your neighbour... ...unless of course he's gay

Public servants should not be allowed to discriminate on the grounds of their beliefs, Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott said today.

She has tabled a motion in the Commons, urging a change in the law.

Last week Lillian Ladele, a marriage registrar, claimed that she was discriminated against because of her religion when she refused to conduct civil partnership ceremonies while employed by Islington council.

An employment tribunal agreed. Her victory could set a precedent that will allow people with strong religious convictions to opt out of the provision of services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Islington Council has decided it will appeal against the employment tribunal ruling.

It emerged earlier this week that Ms Ladele is an unmarried single mother. She told the Mail that she gave birth to an illegitimate son when she was 20. I would never claim to be perfect, she said.

The revelation has led to accusations that she was not properly cross-examined at the tribunal about the nature of her religious faith.

Love your neighbour... ...unless of course he's gay

A Christian registrar who refused to carry out gay 'weddings' has won a landmark legal battle.

Lillian Ladele was threatened with the sack and thrown before the lions after asking to be excused from conducting civil partnerships for same-sex couples because of her religious beliefs.

But a tribunal agreed that her faith had been ridden roughshod over by equalities-targeted Islington Council, which had sought to trump one set of rights with another.

The groundbreaking decision could lead to firms facing 'conscience claims' from staff who say their own beliefs prevent them carrying out part of their job.

The ruling found that Liberal Democrat-run Islington Council in North London cared too much about the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community. It also found that the council – which gave Miss Ladele an ultimatum to choose between her beliefs and her £31,000-a-year job – showed no respect for her rights as a Christian.

Compensation will be decided in September. There is no limit to the amount that can be awarded for religious discrimination.

Last night employment lawyer Lisa Mayhew, of Jones Day, said: It is a bit of a wake-up call for employers. They need to think about whether their instructions and the tasks expected of staff might cause people with religious beliefs more problems than others. It does not have to be religion – this could apply across the spectrum in terms of race, gender or sexual orientation.

Comment: Divorced from Christian Teaching

Thanks to Alan

Nice to be proved right a few years late! When the legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and religion was introduced, I was earning my living through expertise in the field of employment relations, and I said at the time that we would have to see what happened when the two inevitably clashed, given that homosexual relations are a taboo for most religions.

The baffling thing about this case is that Ms Ladele's scruples only kick in about homosexual civil partnerships. OK, the Old Testament and Saint Paul have quite a bit to say about the evils of sodomy, but registry offices have long been the venue of choice for people defying the instructions of the late, great JC himself, by putting away their wives and taking another.

Troy King is the Attorney General of Alabama and has been the focus of a sex scandal.

Within the last couple of week she was caught by his wife Paige in bed with a male aide and was subsequently thrown out of the couple's house.

Of course, King is best known to AVN readers as the current defendant in retailer Sherri Williams' fight to legalize the sale of "obscene devices" - adult novelties whose purpose is sexual stimulation - in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

But AVN have also discovered inevitable anti-gay rhetoric peppered throughout his career where he has stated:

• "The existence of the Gay-Lesbian Alliance on this campus is an affront to the state of Alabama, its citizenry, this university and its students".
   
• "Currently, AIDS is the most behavior-oriented disease known to mankind. If this nation's current purveyors of perversion would refrain from committing sodomy, they would unquestioningly be spared the ravages of the disease."
   
• "It is indeed sad that America has fallen to the point where she will condone any type of deviant, immoral activity in which a group desires to participate."
   
• "I often hear the argument that homosexuals who live together create a loving, caring family environment, perhaps an environment which is even superior to that which can be provided by a heterosexual couple. In this day of rampant decadence, many homosexuals would mislead society into believing that three men, an armadillo and a house plant create a functional family."

But while rumors that Gov. Bob Riley will ask for King's resignation in the wake of the bedroom discovery are unconfirmed, the announcement that King was named to be state campaign chairman of presidential candidate John McCain's Leadership Team in Alabama has been removed from McCain's Website, and King's hopes to succeed Riley as governor in 2010 appear to be over as well.

Bible Warning

A gay man is suing two heavyweight Christian publishers, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Michegan, is seeking $60 million from Zondervan, based in Cascade Township, and $10 million from Nashville-based Thomas Nelson Publishing.

Fowler filed the suit in federal court against Zondervan on July 7, the same day U.S. District Judge Julian Abele Cook Jr. refused to appoint an attorney to represent him in his case against Thomas Nelson.

The Court has some very genuine concerns about the nature and efficacy of these claims, the judge wrote.

Fowler alleges Zondervan's Bibles referring to homosexuality as a sin have made him an outcast from his family and contributed to physical discomfort and periods of demoralization, chaos and bewilderment.

The intent of the publisher was to design a religious, sacred document to reflect an individual opinion or a group's conclusion to cause me or anyone who is a homosexual to endure verbal abuse, discrimination, episodes of hate, and physical violence ... including murder, Fowler wrote.

Fowler's suit claims Zondervan's text revisions from a 1980s version of the Bible included, and then deleted, a reference to homosexuality in 1 Corinthians without informing the public of the changes. The other suit, against Thomas Nelson and its New King James Bible, mirrors the allegations made against Zondervan.

Gay Times in its May issue carried an article on the subject gay porn with a chilling story about a gay male participant in one barebacking (penetrative sex without condoms) DVD, who alleges that he was infected with HIV after unprotected anal sex with another participant, and he himself claims to have never had unprotected sex in his own private life.  ICreme, the producer, has withdrawn the offending DVD from sale, and has also curtailed production of any further bareback erotic DVDs.

Gay Times own Millivres Prowler Group, which may also be about to decide to cease further distribution of bareback erotic DVDs from its Prowler sex shops. The above incident, also reported on Newsnight, a BBC Current Affairs programme, has made them think twice about selling the DVDs, and they're talking with another UK gay sex shop chain, Clone Zone, about withdrawing their on-sale bareback DVDs from sale.

Insofar as censorship policy debates go, the BBFC notes that it isn't against the law to have unprotected anal or vaginal sex in Britain, and any state prohibitions would mean the emergence of a substantial black market. At present, the Prowler sex shops estimate that one-third of all gay erotic DVDs sold are bareback.

Police have arrested 45 people in Hungary after fights broke out at a gay rights march in central Budapest.

Riot police used water canons and tear gas to prevent activists from right-wing groups attacking marchers, Eva Tafferner, a police spokeswoman, said.

At least 10 people were injured in the violence.

Hundreds of activists threw petrol bombs and bottles at the gay rights demonstrators in an attempt to break up the annual march. Police seized petrol bombs from a group of six people waiting for demonstrators in an uninhabited flat along the route of the march. Eggs, firecrackers and cobblestones were also thrown at the about 450 marchers and police.

A police car carrying Katalin Levai, a European parliament member and human rights activist, was attacked by anti-gay demonstrators. A stone was slammed through the window of the car but she was unhurt.

Levai said: This is outrageous and shameful that some 20 years after the change of regime, this is what we have ... such intolerance.

The BBFC – no longer hamstrung by “blasphemy” concerns now that this “crime” has been abolished in the UK – has approved, without cuts, a hardcore pornographic film called Passio. It has been given an R18 rating.

Featuring Danny Fox as a homosexual Jesus,  Passio: Domini Nostri Secundum Matthaeum is a no-holes-barred attempt by director Matthias Von Fistenberg to replicate the “sexing up” of icons like Jesus, which he said took place at the start of the Renaissance.

I wonder what John Beyer will make of this?

Budapest police are bracing for more clashes as nationalist groups plan to disrupt this weekend's Gay Pride Parade, calling it a provocation against Hungarian culture.

The march, part of the city's weeklong Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Festival, will pass through the heart of the capital. Laszlo

Toroczkai, who heads nationalist youth group 64 Counties, is calling on Hungarians to stop it: What we're against is men walking around in pink miniskirts, half naked, kissing each other and desecrating the Bible on the street. Hungarian children don't need to see that. [much better the kids see violence?]

Toroczkai and fellow protest organizer Gyorgy Budahazy were among the leaders of anti-government demonstrations in September 2006 that turned into Hungary's worst street violence in 50 years.

Authorities first banned the parade, saying it would block traffic, then reversed the decision after Mayor Gabor Demszky and other politicians protested.

A right-wing and outspokenly homophobic group in the United States organised a campaign against an advert that was only shown in the UK.

The ad, which featured a kiss between two men, was targeted by what gay equality group Stonewall called an organised campaign here in Britain.

It has emerged that a similar tactic was used by the American Family Association. Heinz's corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh was deluged with complaints from some of the estimated 3.5 million fundamentalist Christians in the AFA.

We suggest you forward this to all your family and friends letting them know of the push for homosexual marriage by Heinz, the AFA said in an email to supporters, reports The Guardian: This ad is currently running in England, but no doubt can be expected in the US soon.

Heinz UK had already decided to pull the advert from British TV before the AFA became involved, a decision that has led everyone from gay groups to MPs to condemn them.

See full article from the Guardian

The UK's advertising regulator has decided not to investigate Heinz's "male kiss" TV ad, despite 215 complaints from viewers that it was offensive and inappropriate to see two men kissing.

The ASA council considered that while some viewers may have personal objections to any portrayal of same sex kissing there was nothing in the content of the advertisement what would constitute a breach of the advertising code, said a spokesman for the ASA.

The Heinz TV ad carried an "ex-kids" restriction, meaning it cannot be shown in or around children's programming, because Heinz Deli Mayo falls foul of Ofcom's TV ad restrictions relating to junk food products.

A spokesman for Heinz said that despite the ad being cleared of breaching the advertising code the company had no plans to put the Heinz Deli Mayo TV commercial back on air.

Christian leaders have gathered in Denver in opposition to an anti-Christian censorship law that could open the door to censoring the Bible.

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter signed the state bill, SB 200, which aims at silencing all publications that discriminate against homosexuality.

Section 8 of Senate Bill 200 is a wide open door for any judge to censor anything that condemns homosexuality, including Scripture, Colorado State Rep. Kevin Lundberg said.

I do believe that the Bible is banned, under the plain language of this new statute, Steve Crampton, general counsel of the pro-family Liberty Counsel, said, indicating he believes that day is already here.

Section 8 reads, No person, being the owner. agent, or employee of any place of public accommodation. shall publish. distribute, give away. except as provided in this section, any communication. book, pamphlet, writing. or advertisement of any kind. intended or calculated to discriminate. against. sexual orientation, marital status (which) is unwelcome.

MPs are calling for an advert showing two men kissing to be reinstated after it was pulled following complaints. More than two decades after the first gay kiss on teatime TV, a kiss is clearly not always just a kiss.

Twenty-one years after Britain's first gay kiss on primetime TV prompted condemnation from MPs, a show of intimacy between two men clearly still has the capacity to shock television audiences.

Heinz has withdrawn an advert for its Deli Mayo brand one week into a five-week schedule. It depicts a man with a New York accent and dressed like a chef, making sandwiches in a homely British family kitchen. After a schoolboy and girl - who refer to the wise-cracking chef as "Mum" - dash through to pick up their sandwiches, their harried father appears, seemingly late for work. The father says a fleeting goodbye but is summoned back by the chef for a more intimate farewell - a brief kiss.

A spokeswoman for the ASA says it's still assessing whether to investigate, but added that homosexuality in itself is not a breach of the code and complaints in the past about adverts showing same-sex kissing had not prompted any action.

Yet one organisation failing to see the funny side is the American Family Association, which issued an action alert to members over the advert urging them to register their disapproval with the firm's US headquarters.

But the withdrawal of the advert has prompted some MPs to insist it be reinstated, while gay rights group Stonewall is leading a campaign to boycott Heinz.

Some people could be offended by seeing a mixed race couple but the real issue is whether it's proportionate to withdraw an advert on that basis, says chief executive Ben Summerskill: No nine or 10-year-old child is going to be outraged by two men kissing unless someone tells that child to be upset.

A public service announcement showing a kiss between two men which was banned was finally aired on Croatian television this week.

The video Protect Every Kiss which was produced by a German film academy in an anti-violence campaign, was aired by Croatian Television (HTV) editor Aleksandar Stankovic.

The video was first offered by the Queer Association, but was rejected by HTV because the television deemed that it showed an explicit kiss between two men.

The HTV council did promise to the Croatian gay association, however, that all sides will be heard in a program focusing on violence against homosexuals.

The topic of the show in which the video was aired dealt with homosexuality, the rights of gays, the Church, and political messages coming from the altar.

Stankovic’s guest Ivica Šola said that he is against all censorship as it leads nowhere. Speaking of the position of the Catholic Church in the contemporary world, he said that Catholicism is the only societal prejudice that is allowed today.

The ASA said viewers had complained that the Heinz scene depicting two men giving each other a quick kiss goodbye was "offensive", "inappropriate" and "unsuitable to be seen by children".

Viewers? Bigots more like. There is nothing wrong with homosexual expressions of affection. They would not moan if it was a heterosexual display of affection would they? As to it being unsuitable for children this is simply hate in caring form. There are gay children, we do not want to deal with it but there are, and positive depictions of same sex relationships such as this are a great help all round.

...Read full article

Cuba's first gay pride parade was abruptly cancelled moments before it was to begin.

The unofficial march, organised with Florida's Unity Coalition, was not sanctioned by Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education, which is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro.

Activist Mario Jose Delgado said two organisers who were to deliver a set of demands to the Justice Ministry were detained.

The president of the Cuban League Against Aids and the president of the Foundation LGTB Reinaldo Arenas in Memoriam have been arrested, Delgado said: They were to be here with our written demands but now we cannot carry out our activity.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia have detained more than 20 men after a raid on a property in the coastal town of Qatif.

Newspaper Al-Medina reports that quantities of alcohol were seized at a gathering of young men and that many more were initially arrested on homosexuality charges but later released. 21 remain in custody.

In Saudi Arabia, homosexuality is illegal under sharia, or Islamic Law. The maximum sentence it carries is the death penalty and this is most commonly performed by public beheading.

With strict laws restricting unmarried opposite-sex couples, however, and public displays of affection accepted between men, some Westerners have suggested that sharia encourages homosexuality.

Israel's Supreme Court refused Monday to issue an injunction barring gays from holding a pride march in Jerusalem this Thursday.

The ultra-right National Jewish Front and the city of Jerusalem filed separate briefs with the high court asking to have the parade cancelled.

The National Jewish Front in its brief called the parade a "a provocation". The brief filed by the city said it feared civil unrest.

During a hearing Monday Justice Ayala Procaccia said there must be a balance: between the desires of the gay and lesbian community to march, and the feelings of the city's residents. It is important that such parades become a matter of routine instead of causing a commotion every year.

In rejecting both applications to halt the parade the justices said they took into consideration the parade route, its expected duration and an undertaking by Jerusalem Open House, the parade organizer that the march would not be provocative in nature.

Gay rights supporters have been urged to boycott Heinz products, after the company dropped a mayonnaise advertisement that showed two men kissing.

Campaigners insisted that Heinz had capitulated to a concerted homophobic campaign and that they would be urging supporters to boycott the company's products.

The corporation decided to withdraw the light-hearted Deli Mayo commercial within days of its launch because it was "listening to its consumers".

The Advertising Standards Authority said yesterday that it had received 202 objections from viewers, a high number in such a short time. A spokesman for the ASA said it has yet to decide whether to investigate if the commercial breached its rules, adding: Homosexuality in itself is not a breach but they could look at it from the point of view of taste and decency.

The commercial also caused controversy in the US where the notoriously reactionary Fox News host Bill O'Reilly complained: I just want mayonnaise, I don't want guys kissing.

Last night Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall, urged its supporters to stop buying Heinz products. We're shocked that an innocuous ad should have been withdrawn in this way.

Our phones have not stopped ringing with supporters who are deeply upset. I think people are a surprised they have responded so swiftly to what appears, on the face of it, to be organised complaints, a campaign by people who are determined to be outraged whenever there is any reference to homosexuality, however light hearted.

It's been only five years since the U.S. Supreme Court decriminalized consensual sodomy between adults, but apparently, police in West Raleigh, North Carolina, haven't yet been made aware of the ruling.

It all started when Nelson Sloan called 911 in the early morning hours of May 24, claiming he'd been attacked in his apartment by Ryan Flynn. After investigation, the cops charged Flynn with simple assault for biting Sloan – and with threatening to disembowel Sloan and show him his (Sloan's) innards.

But they also charged both men with committing an "infamous crime against nature" – North Carolina's legal term for sodomy.

This looks like a case of a consensual act that may have gotten out of hand, police Capt. T.D. Hardy said: The law is still on the books. Our detectives got involved in it last night and decided this was the best thing to do. What the D.A.'s office will do with it, I don't know.

The good news is, Wake County prosecutors dropped the sodomy charges against both men a week later, with Assistant District Attorney Adam Moyers concluding that the blowjobs and/or anal sex between the men were consensual and private.

The bad news is, Sloan still had to pay $450 to a bail bondsman to get released from jail, and though he's asked for a refund, it's unlikely that he'll get it.

The further bad news is, though many North Carolina district attorneys have stopped prosecuting the sodomy law, State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird has tried for years to rescind the statute. I press it every year," Kinnaird said shortly after the arrests: It would be politically difficult, but that doesn't matter. It's unconstitutional.

A mayonnaise advert showing two men kissing has been withdrawn after it led to more than 200 complaints.

Heinz confirmed last night that it had withdrawn the television commercial for its Deli Mayo following 'consumer feedback'.

Nigel Dickie, of Heinz UK, said: We recognise that some consumers raised concerns over the content of the ad and this prompted our decision to withdraw it. The advertisement, part of a short-run campaign, was intended to be humorous and we apologise to anyone who felt offended.

The advertising watchdog has yet to confirm if it will investigate the Heinz commercial, one of the most complained about commercials this year.

Viewers said it was 'offensive', 'inappropriate' and 'unsuitable to be seen by children', while some parents were angry that they had been forced to explain same-sex relationships to their youngsters who asked them about the ad.

The commercial shows a family scene with a young boy and girl getting ready to go to school. They refer to a man making sandwiches in the kitchen as 'mum'. He is dressed like a delicatessen worker and has a New York accent. Their father enters the kitchen, grabs a sandwich and says to the man: See you tonight, love. The 'mum' then shouts back Hey, ain't you forgetting something, before the two men kiss.

It finishes with the slogan: Heinz Deli Mayo – Mayo with a New York Deli flavour.'

Gay rights campaigners have clashed with Belfast's Rape Crisis Centre over plans to lower the age of sexual consent to 16. The British government has published proposals to bring Northern Ireland's legal process, under which it is illegal for 16-year-olds to have sex, into line with the rest of the UK.

The centre has joined a loose nutter alliance with the Catholic church, evangelical Protestant churches and Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party to oppose the proposed change from 17 to 16. Ranged against them are organisations representing the gay community.

Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland (Glyni) said it was 'illogical' to argue that there was a huge gap between someone at 17 and another at 16. Along with the Rainbow Project, a charity supporting gays, Glyni has welcomed the introduction of the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2007, reducing the age of consent to 16.

Liam Larmour, Glyni's spokesman, said both organisations were concerned that young people were being criminalised in the eyes of the law. To many young people, having sex at 16 is no different than having sex at 17, and is their choice of what to do with their own bodies. After all, you can get married at 16 with parental consent, you can smoke, choose your GP and buy your own fireworks, and for the moment can leave school too, he said.

Whitehall faces an uphill struggle to create parity in the age of consent law across the UK. The DUP has vowed to resist any changes, though Northern Ireland Office Minister Paul Goggins does have reserve powers to impose reforms.

Goggins will also face fierce resistance from the Catholic church and most Protestant churches. At the next monthly conference of the Irish Catholic bishops, a statement will be issued denouncing the lowering of the age of consent and pledging a broad-based campaign against the change.

The curtain went down on Ronnie Larsen's play, Making Porn, only shortly after it opened over the March 11 weekend at SPOT, 4146 Manchester Street.

According to a press release by SPOT owner Thomas Long, St. Louis police halted the show during its second performance on Saturday night. The show is a comedy about the pornographic industry that does contain on-stage nudity, Long said in the release. That nudity allegedly broke the ordinance, according the city. It is unclear whether the nudity in Making Porn or its gay-themed subject matter was the catalyst for this action compared to other shows.

Long pointed out that Making Porn was being produced at SPOT by a California-based production company who had leased the space for a three-week run. The show has been produced in numerous other cities in the United States and internationally.

Western documentary makers should think twice about making films about Islam because they do not understand the issues as well as their Muslim counterparts, a leading Muslim film-maker has said.

Parvez Sharma, whose documentary about what it means to be gay and Muslim had its European premiere at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival recently, said Western non-Muslim film makers were jumping on the "Islamic bandwagon": Post 11 September, [Islam] is suddenly very hot, and he cited the "plane-loads" of documentary makers who flew from New York to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

For many documentary film-makers there's very little understanding of the complexities. Everyone has been jumping on the Islamic bandwagon. Very few of those films do justice [to Islam]. They suffer from a lack of comprehension. There's this need to cash in on the Islamic theme.

Sharma, whose documentary, A Jihad For Love includes emotional interviews with gay Muslims from around the world, torn between their homosexuality and their faith, said there was a "paucity" of Muslim film-makers and called on Islamic documentary producers to make their own voices heard to combat Islamaphobia. His Jihad, filmed over six years, reveals the often shocking treatment meted out to homosexuals in Islamic states such as Iran, where one of the men featured was flogged for attending a gay party, and in Egypt, where another interviewee was thrown into prison, where he was raped, then fled to France.

For Sharma, a gay Muslim from the north of India who now lives in the US, making the film was an intensely personal experience. It was very important for me as a Muslim film-maker not to deal with Islam as a problematic monolith, which is how many people in the west see Islam, he said.

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country.

Britain regularly challenges Iran about its gay hangings, stonings and executions of adulterers and perceived moral criminals, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) papers show.

The latest row involves a woman hanged this June in the town of Gorgan after becoming pregnant by her brother. He was absolved after expressing his remorse. Britain said that this demonstrated the unequal treatment of men and women in law and breached Iran’s pledge to restrict the death penalty to the most serious crimes.

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the FCO released papers to The Times about the death penalty being used in Iran for homosexuality, adultery and sex outside marriage.

Minutes taken by an official describe a meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, in May. When the Britons raised the hangings of Asqari and Marhouni, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Yahyavi, a member of his parliament’s energy committee, was unflinching. He explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted, the record states. He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.

A Briton has been remanded in custody in Ghana for having sex with another man, the Foreign Office confirmed yesterday.

The man appeared at Accra circuit court charged with "unnatural carnal knowledge" and possession of obscene pictures. Gay sex is outlawed in the west African country.

The photographer was arrested at an airport when police searching him for drugs found a CD with images of him having sexual intercourse with a 19-year-old Ghanaian.

The man has pleaded guilty to "unnatural carnal knowledge". He has been given the option of a six-month jail term or a fine of about £320, according to a Foreign Office spokesman. He was remanded in custody after he was unable to pay a £2,500 bail surety for the charge of possessing obscene images, which he denies.

The Foreign Office said the high commission in Accra was giving the man consular support.

A Christian website editor who was sentenced to two months in prison for inciting hatred against homosexuals has been cleared by the Supreme Court in Sweden.

Leif Liljeström, who had already had his sentence cut to one month by the Court of Appeal, was cleared after the court ruled that he may not have been aware that anti-gay comments posted by visitors to his website, Bibeltemplet or The Bible Temple, consituted incitement to hatred.

Liljeström said: I actually had a feeling that it would turn out like this. I did what Christians do and asked God. I then got a feeling that it was going to work out well.

Liljeström told the court that he had thought long and hard about removing the offending posts before eventually allowing them to remain on the site where they could serve to generate further discussion.

One of the more extreme comments was posted by a visitor to a discussion forum thread entitled "Sodomy". The commenter stated that men who cannot summon up the energy to abstain from intercourse with other men should be sentenced to death and hanged from posts in the town square. Although he did not remove it, Leifström did in fact criticise this statement and several others on the site's discussion forum.

According to the first court to hear the case, Stenungsund District Court, as website administrator he was guilty of incitement against a group of people for statements he himself had written, and for crime against the law on electronic bulletin boards for guest-messages which he neglected to delete.