A Catholic adoption society has won a High Court ruling that could lead to it becoming exempt from having to consider gay couples as parents under UK equality laws.

Catholic Care, based in the diocese of Leeds, West Yorkshire, says it will have to give up its work finding homes for children if it has to comply with the laws.

It came to court to challenge a Charity Commission refusal - backed by the Charity Tribunal - to grant it an exemption from new equality regulations which prohibit discrimination against same-sex couples wanting to adopt.

Mr Justice Briggs, sitting in London, ruled the Commission had misinterpreted Regulation 18 of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007, which allows for exemptions. The judge ruled the purpose of 18 was to allow exceptions if they could be justified under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination.

He said Catholic Care was in a very unusual predicament with its status as an adoption agency of last resort for 'hard to place' children. The arguably pre-eminent needs of those children who will otherwise be left unadopted may constitute a very special and unusual case for recognition under Article 14, quite unlike any other to be found in the existing jurisprudence, but none the worse for that, said the judge.

He ordered the Commission to reconsider the case and to analyse whether an exemption was justified in the light of his judgment.

The judge's decision was warmly welcomed by Catholic organisations but greeted with dismay by critics including the National Secular Society, which described the ruling as the first major setback for the protection of gay people from discrimination by religious groups.

Comment: Adopting Hypocrisy

From JAK

After the Pope had to apologise for the Irish Catholic church covering up child abuse by it's priesthood we get news that a Catholic Adoption agency has won the right to exclude homosexuals from using their services.

Perhaps the same service will protect children further by not letting them near ANY Catholic priests... somehow I think not, it's fine to cover up child abuse by your own people but not ok to be gay and give kids a loving home.

A California state senator who has been a staunch opponent of homosexual rights was forced to admit that he himself is gay.

Republican lawmaker Roy Ashburn, a divorced conservative Roman Catholic, came out on KERN radio, saying he felt compelled to address rumours that he had visited a gay nightclub near the Capitol before his arrest last week for drunk driving.

I am gay. And so, those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.

Ashburn has consistently voted against gay rights measures since he was elected to the state Assembly in 1996. He has said those votes reflected the way constituents in his district wanted him to vote.

A statement issued after Ashburn's arrest said: I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuses for my poor judgement. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences of what I did.

Senator Ashburn was arrested after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, according to cbs13.com.

Writing on The Gospel According to Hate, (ex) Father Tom said:

What happens when a good Catholic, married father of four, grandfather of two, tea-bagger, Reagan lover, Republican, senator, and staunch opponent of gay rights takes a state-issued vehicle out for a spin after dark on your tax dollars?

Ding! Ding! Ding! He goes to a Sacramento gay bar (appropriately named Faces), gets trashed, picks up a trick, drives away drunk, swerves all over the road, gets pulled over, and blows a whopping .14 into the breathalyser.

My dear heretics, it's time to canonize another conservative Catholic and Republican anti-gay hypocrite.

Senator Roy-Toy has voted against every piece of civil, immigration, labor, LGBT, and women's rights legislation since being elected, but that didn't stop him from having his boys on the side.

The age of consent for gay men in Guernsey could be reduced to 16, if the island's politicians agree.

Later this month the States are due to debate if the laws should be made equal for homosexuals and heterosexuals.

Currently sex between two men is illegal under the age of 18, but between a man and a woman is legal from the age of 16.

The Home Department, which has put forward the move, said there needed to be equality on human rights grounds.

The changes would also strike from the law-books the current ban on sex between more than two men at the same time.

The American Family Association has announced today that the organization's founder and longtime leader, Donald Wildmon, has resigned after more than 30 years as chairman of what has long been one of the leading anti-gay organizations in the country.

According to a press release, Wildmon has resigned due to ongoing health concerns caused after he was bitten last summer by a mosquito carrying the St. Louis encephalitis virus. Wildmon said that he will continue to work with AFA, and that his son, Tim, who has been with the organization for 24 years, is expected to succeed him as chair.

According to the press release: The retired United Methodist minister [Donald Wildmon] began AFA in 1977 in his dining room with a typewriter and a used offset press. Today the ministry operates on a $20 million annual budget with 175 employees. The ministry owns and operates 180 radio stations, a monthly magazine with a circulation of 170,000 and an internet presence of 2.5 million supporters.

Here are just a few examples of how Wildmon has used his budget and his influence to try and stall LGBT rights:

• Wildmon is first national religious leader to call on GOP officeholders to purge their staffs of LGBT people after the Congressman Mark Foley scandal in 2006.
• Wildmon calls on his supporters to take action against McDonald's after the fast food chain joins the National GLBT Chamber of Commerce in 2008.
• Wildmon and his AFA troops worked to pass Proposition 8 in California in 2008.
• Wildmon called for a boycott of PepsiCo because the company supported gay rights.

Amnesty International has called on the authorities of Lithuania to remove all restrictions on the distribution of public information relating to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people decreed in a new law.

The controversial Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information enters into force 1 March.

This law will violate the freedom of expression and will directly discriminate against people on account of their sexual orientation or gender identity, said John Dalhuisen, expert on discrimination at Amnesty International.

It will stigmatize gay and lesbian people and exposes advocates for their rights to the risk of censorship and financial penalties.

This law is an anachronism in the European Union.

The new law now classifies any information which denigrates family values or which encourages a concept of marriage and family other than stipulated in the Constitution  and the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania as detrimental to children and consequently bans it from places accessible to them.

As marriage is defined in Lithuanian law as the union of a man and a woman, any public promotion of same-sex partnerships, or advocacy for equality in marriage, would be prohibited under the new law.

An art exhibition portraying Jesus as the gay son of a prostitute has been closed after the organisers at Granada University in Spain admitted that furious protests from churchgoers meant that they could no longer guarantee the safety of its creator, Fernando Bayona.

The exhibition also shows Jesus having sex with Mary Magdalen before turning gay. There is a lot of anger and there have been some very serious threats to both the artist and our staff, said a worker at the university.