Giving Offence

I have received the following:

This is a call for lobbying of the House of Lords over the Coroners and Justice Bill. The Government is taking the opportunity of this Bill to repeal the 'free speech amendment' inserted into the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 by Lord Waddington. This clarified the meaning of a section on hate speech directed at homosexuals, so that legitimate discussion of sexual morality would not be criminalised. Lord Waddington's amendment read:

"In this Part, for the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred."

The Government wants to take this out: they do NOT want Christians or anyone else to be able to say, in their defence against accusations of hate speech, that they are not stirring up hatred but merely engaging in a moral discussion about lifestyles and actions. In short, mentioning the Church's teaching on sex outside marriage will be against the law, if anyone listening could be offended.

The maximum penalty for breaking this law is 7 years in prison.

This is no joke. Please lobby the peers. All they need to do is vote as they did before: you can see a list of peers who voted for Lord Waddington's amendment last year here (PDF).

For more information see here.