http://www.equalmarriage.org.uk/consultation.php

Here are the questions and my answers:

1. Do you agree that the law in Scotland should be changed to allow same-sex marriage? 

Answer: Yes

Let’s not call it ‘same-sex’ marriage – just ‘marriage’. Gay couples don’t want to redefine marriage, we want to join marriage as the institution that it already is about: two people pledging to love, honour, and cherish each other all their lives.

2. Do you agree that same-sex couples should be able to get married through both civil ceremonies (conducted by a registrar) and religious ceremonies (conducted by those religious groups that want to)?

Answer: Yes

Some religious groups have no problem with the two couple s of the same gender wanting to get married. I say let them! Churches should refuse a ceremony on a question of conscious just like they can today if they think two people of the opposite gender are unsuitable.

3. If Scotland should introduce same-sex marriage, do you consider that civil partnership should remain available?

Answer: No

Once you have first class (marriage), why keep second-class (civil partnerships)?

4. Do you agree that legislation should be changed so that civil partnerships could be registered through religious ceremonies?

Answer: Yes

Some religious groups have no problem with the two couple s of the same gender wanting to have civil partnership ceremony. I say let them! Churches should refuse a ceremony on a question of conscious just like they can today if they think two people of the opposite gender are unsuitable.

5. Do you agree that religious bodies should not be required to conduct same-sex marriages or civil partnerships if it is against their wishes?

Answer: Yes

Yes, churches should refuse a ceremony on a question of conscious just like they can today if they think two people of the opposite gender are unsuitable.

6. Do you have any other comments? For example, do you have any comments on the potential implications of the proposals for transgender people?

Answer: Yes

Surely, allowing marriage to include same-sex couples means that if one person in an existing marriage changes gender, it will have zero lawful effect on the status of their marriage.

The article they wrote about Tesco sponsoring London Pride 2012 next year – and this being falsely linked to dropping sponsorship for Cancer Research’s Race For Life – has got the shallow-thinking,  gullible, unquestioning Daily Mail readers in a fluster – particularly those of a religious bent (indeed I wonder if there’s a link between being gullible and being religious?)

This morning I spot on the news about London Pride (thank you Google News emails!) that a gullible reader has written to his local paper, Ross-Shire Journal, to demand a boycott of Tesco stores in the local area. From the Ross-Shire Journal (click here for their full article):

Wester Ross resident Andrew Allan is calling for a boycott of the nation’s leading supermarket chain over its support of Pride London, which next year hosts WorldPride 2012, an event that that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues on an international stage.

Tesco has come in for flack from some quarters since announcing its £30,000 sponsorship of the July 2012 event.

In a letter in this week’s Journal, Mr Allan, of Pier Road, Aultbea, said he was “alarmed” to hear Tesco had “transferred their allegiance” from Cancer Research UK to support Pride London.

He writes, “It would seem it is more important to Tesco to further the aims and practices of a tiny minority of the population in preference to supporting a charity, whose sterling work all ages and sections of society benefit from.”

Urging readers to write to complain to Tesco and to “boycott their supermarkets until this decision is reversed”,

Mr Allan concludes, “Would you like to help an organisation that is seeking to find a cure for cancer or would you rather support an event dedicated to perversion?”

The only perversion, Andrew Allan, is your gullibility in accepting what your hear without question. In calling London Pride as event ‘dedicated to perversion’, you insult not only me, but all gay. lesbian, bisexual and transgender staff who work at Tesco – and anywhere else for that matter.

Having gay friends who work at Tesco, I can tell you that I’m glad you are boycotting Tesco. Gay people serve you at Tesco (and Sainsbury’s, Asda and all other stores) and would probably be less than pleased that you are labelling them perverted when you don’t even know them. They will be relieved that you are no longer their to judge them as they serve you.  

Pope Benedict kisses an Muslim Imam, thus saying that:

1. Christianity approves of man-on-man kisses and, inferred in that, gay love.
2. Islam embraces homosexuality as equal love.
3. The Pope likes gay people (at last)!
4. Christians and Muslims get on with each other (at last 2)!

It’s only a dream, alas, which clothing retailer Benetton has brought to Photoshopped life through this wonderful photograph that forms part of their “Unhate” campaign. Pope Benedict XVI kissing on the lips of a top Egyptian Imam Ahmed el Tayyeb, imam of the Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo has, alas, been withdrawn after threats.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi moaned:

We must express the firmest protest for this absolutely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in a publicity campaign with commercial ends. This shows a grave lack of respect for the pope, an offence to the feelings of believers, a clear demonstration of how publicity can violate the basic rules of respect for people by attracting attention with provocation. 

Well here it is. It would say so much if it were true. Actually it would say so little. But little is powerful. Indeed  little is 6 letters: UNHATE.

In his message, David clarifies the position of the company on their partnership with Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life vs. London Gay Pride 2012 sponsorship:

You may have seen speculation in the media suggesting that we are dropping our support for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life and replacing it with sponsorship of Pride London. This is inaccurate, so I thought it would be helpful for you to have the facts.

After ten years, the nature of our partnership with Cancer Research UK is changing. After much discussion with the charity, we have jointly agreed that we will not repeat the title sponsorship we had last year. However, we will continue to support Race For Life by paying the entry fee to the event for our staff – still a very substantial contribution.

We are very proud of the work we have done to help build Race for Life over the years. It is now the UK’s largest women-only fundraising series and since 2002 over half of our staff have been involved with the charity, raising over £7m.

I hope that those of you who can will take part in Race for Life as enthusiastically next year as you have in previous years.

Entirely separately, and as part of our wide-ranging charitable programme, we took a decision earlier this year to support Out at Tesco by sponsoring the family area of the 2012 Pride London event.

I can totally assure you that this decision was not linked in any way to our sponsorship of Race for Life, and those who claim in the media that it was are just trying to make mischief. We support a great many charities and good causes and will continue to do so.

David North
UK Corporate Affairs Director

Skinner penned this following foul message on Anglican Mainstream site:
“I have recently written to over 5000 people urging them to make the strongest possible complaint against Tesco’s financial support of London Pride 2011 which in my view is nothing more than a spectacle of broken humanity and broken Britain. Many have answered my call by stating that they in turn will not only cease trading with Tesco but will urge others to do likewise. … “

Well David, honey, it seems that a far wider group of people disagree! I love this blog entry from The Freethinker who points out that not only Tesco but The Co-op  in the UK and Walmart in the USA. The Freethinker‘s Barry Duke reveals attempts by ‘christian’ commenters trying to get others to boycott these corporations which came to nought. Barry concludes wryly. “Unless Christian fundies want to starve themselves for their batty bigotry, they better start thinking fast of joining the grow-your-own movement.”

Of course, for those of you who want to counter the 5,000 letters threatened by David Skinner, you can always counter. It took a bit of digging but I have found the email of Sir Richard Broadbent – it’s rather obvious really:  Richard.Broadbent@tesco.com

If you are not sure what to say, why not copy and paste this message:

Dear Sir Richard

I just wanted to let you know that I’m glad to see that everyone is welcome at Tesco, whether staff or customers. Thanks to your sponsorship of the Family Area at the 2012 London Gay Pride, ‘everyone’ clearly includes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT).

I also want to thank you for standing up to people who bully LGBT people and threaten you. Often such people use religious – indeed Christian – reasons for this bullying. Let me tell you that these people are not remotely ‘Christian’ in the real sense. So please ignore any requests to withdraw your sponsorship of London Pride 2012 and thus you can demonstrate clearly 1) that everyone truly is welcome at Tesco and 2) every little helps!

Thank you for your time – and hey I’m liking that price drop campaign of yours. Keep food prices down! Thank you.

Best regards

<Your name>

The article makes for typical Daily Mail-inspired misleading reading. The two events – concluding sponsoring Cancer Research’s Race For Life and sponsoring the  Family Area at next year’s London Gay Pride festival – have been linked together nefariously by journalist Sean Poulter, whose other Daily Mail gems include “Is pooping dachshund about to scoop top spot in the Christmas toy chart?” and came second in the Journalism CRAPPs awards for The ‘most likely to tell you to sling your hook‘ award (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_CRAPPs). Sean has excelled himself by making it sound like Tesco dropped Cancer Research in order to support London Pride.

Of course religious groups have weighed in to the argument. The authors of the Catholic Herald have exclaimed, “Why has Tesco thrown its enormous weight behind a gay pride event?” – adding “If thousands of Christians and others protest then it is likely Tesco executives will think again”.

Anglican Mainstream (which demonstrates itself to be anything but ‘mainstream’ through its writing) is trying to get readers to write to the Tesco chairman to complain (see http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2011/10/31/tesco-becomes-major-london-gay-pride-sponsor-2) using vicious reasons by trying to take down Out at Tesco’s diversity promise to staff. It’s even suggesting Tesco link to what it calls “post-gay” groups which exist to try and turn gay people straight! I would laugh if it was so saddening that there are still people who think like this.

All kudos to a lady called Samantha Attwell who works somewhere in Tesco Customer Services judging by her letter, who penned a fantastic response to Anglican Mainstream’s bullying and threatening letter. You can read it at the bottom of this article. Samantha, I don’t know you but thank you for 1) politely disagreeing with Anglican Mainstream and 2) not wanting to say what you really feel which is probably that the author should go and take his hate and jump off a cliff with it.

So first some truth and then some lovely comments from the band of typical shallow-thinking Daily Mail readers who have swarmed in to lend their hand to bash Tesco and gay people.

Tesco pays out millions to charities each year thanks to the generosity and hard-work of staff who raise the money through all kinds of events form bucket collections and sponsored treks to “Tesco Does Strictly Come Dancing”. Tesco has a charity of the year which changes each year. At  present staff are raising money for Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer’s Scotland. Staff are also allowed to raise money for other charities as long as the charity of the year gets at least half if its done in Tesco’s name – and quite right too.

In addition there are staff networks which, amongst providing support to staff, can also raise money for a charity they nominate, again as long as half goes to the charity of the year. Tesco has a staff network for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff called “Out at Tesco”. This group addresses specific issues experienced by gay staff at Tesco, provides mentoring and support, and raises money for its own charity, Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), alongside the Tesco charity of the year. More about Out at Tesco’s work can be found here: http://www.outattesco.com

Now to some comments from Daily Mail readers:

Yet one more reason to shop elsewhere. Haven’t been inside a Tesco store now for about 15 years, not with Asda, Sainsbury’s. Aldi, and Lidl all providing a better service and customer relations. Every little helps – my posterior.
– Bwj, Uk

Dropping a cancer charity in favour of a gay ‘charity’? I now know where I WON’T be doing my weekly shop. I’m a lesbian, but I am sick and tired of people flaunting their sex lives.
– Jane, Liverpool, UK

Count me in on the boycott.
– MICHELINE B, UK

Well, BWJ, Jane And Micheline, you could delight Tesco’s LGBT staff by not darkening its doors again – but, oh wait, if you did that then you would be abusing gay people in Asda, Morrisons, Lidl, Sainsburys and other Tesco competitors who serve you with your groceries. Perhaps you should consider holding hands with the Anglican and Catholic shallow thinking hate mongers and join them in that jump? And Jane with that attitude I suspect I’m more a lesbian than you, hun (and I’m a bloke!).

As for the rest of us, it would be great if we all could write to the Tesco chairman (and Samantha Attwell) and thank them for ensuring that, as Samantha says in her letter, “everyone is welcome at Tesco”.

Tesco's letter (as quoted in Anglican Mainstream article:

Dear Sir / Madam,
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in my response.
Thank you for your comments regarding our involvement in London Gay Pride. I am grateful for the opportunity to explain our position on this matter.
Tesco is an inclusive business and we seek to reflect the communities we serve. This enables us to keep improving the shopping experience for our customers and the working environment for colleagues.
Everyone is welcome at Tesco. As part of this commitment, we support a number of organisations and partners which reflect the diversity of cultures throughout the country and who shop and work with this business. This year we are supporting the Alzheimer's Society and Alzheimer's Scotland as our charity of the year, working with Whizz-kidz to provide placements for young wheelchair users and working with Remploy and others to offer job opportunities to disabled and disadvantaged people. We are proud to have been invited to support World Pride in 2012 among a variety of community and charitable events.
When taken together, our support for community based activities are the expression of our company values which are: 'No-one tries harder for customers' and 'treat people as we like to be treated'. This means that we do not campaign for or promote any particular position but seek to operate in a way which means we 'live' these values. As a diverse business in a country of varied culture and background, we believe it is right to embrace that diversity and to reflect the lives our customer’s lead, which is inclusive of both faith and sexual orientation in all their difference.
I respect your point of view and understand that there are others who share it. However, our position is simply that 'Everyone is Welcome at Tesco' which means that sometimes we find ourselves in a position where the interests of one may come up against the beliefs of another. Our hope is that this leads to a sense of inclusion for everyone who shops and works with us.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. I trust that I have clarified our position on this matter.
Kind Regards
Samantha Attwell Tesco Customer Service

A regular annual sponsor is threatening not to give them the ‘usual’ $50K donation unless they (NARTH) can prove they have lots of supporters. So to do this, they are asking subscribers to make donations in other people’s names in order to apparently boost numbers.

In their newsletter, NARTH’s Board of Directors write:

“When we went to see them a week or so ago they asked us a simple question, “If we were to eliminate NARTH from our list of organizations we fund could you survive? Do you really have the support of a large enough number of  “grassroots” friends and donors to justify our continued financial help?”

The letter suggests a way to sort this out:

“I think there is a rather simple solution. On August 30th we want to take them a list of 1,000 people who believe in NARTH enough to contribute $20. …  Donate an additional $20 in the name of your spouse, child, or grandchild. Donate $20 in the name of someone NARTH has help overcome unwanted homosexuality, but please donate! “

I’d be fascinated to know what the major funding organization would think of NARTH providing a list containing mostly faked supporters when attempting to secure the funding. I’m sure this is called ‘fraud’. I’m in the process of uncovering the organization that would supply such funding, but if you have any clues please do get in touch with them and let them know.

So a moment of rejoicing, methinks!

The trouble with me is that I monitor the sites of organizations who would rather this didn’t happen. Of course to say they are livid is something of an understatement, but unfortunately at least one of them is to cause some level of disturbance to the gay pride festival season.

A Christian group in Charlotte (NC) plans to hold a ‘gathering’ at the upcoming gay pride festival. On thie Facebook page they say

This rally is a Spirit-birthed response to Charlotte’s annual gay pride event. More than one thousand believers will be gathering to worship the Lord, intercede in prayer, and proclaim that “God Has a Better Way”! 

So here is a call to action:

1) Go to http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=78952784657 (you will need to login to Facebook if you are not already).

2) Click ‘Not Attending’ under the title ‘Your RSVP’ on the right side of the page.

3) (Optional) add a useful comment to explain the folly of their narrow-mindedness. Here’s what I wrote:

Don’t you get it? God is asking you to attend the event to be witness to what you will discover are wonderful gay people, fully human and not ‘things’ to be prayed away.

You are not there to pray, you are there to learn, and then you can ask Him for forgiveness.

(Don’t worry – I haven’t suddenly found god, I’m just speaking their language!)

Have fun, but don’t be rude – show them up for the unthinking individuals they are, not you.

Sometimes I should step back and see what the more balanced people are doing, and I have to say that, in the USA at least, they’re doing just fine.

Today the governor of Maine, John Baldacci, signed a marriage equality bill passed by the state legislature, making Maine the fifth state in the U.S. to allow same-sex couples to legally marry under state law.

That’s pretty good going and, although it will be a long time for some states to get this far, it should be remember that it was 84  years separated the first US state from abolishing interracial marriage until the last state did. We’re only about three years into our journey!

Of course religion was used as the reason to keep loving couples of different races from marrying. Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s 18th-century interpretation of race, proclaimed that:

Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.

Religion is now being cited as the reason for disallowing gay marriage. That is why with time it will be surely overturned. Let’s just hope its a little quicker than 80 years.

You can enjoy the live rebuking that the account is getting by regularly refreshing this link: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=nomtweets 

Another bizarre element has come in the form of adverts that NOM are placing across internet sites. Some gay sites are included in the ad-posting, including most notably Good-As-You who note the ‘shameless irony’ of the Ads appearing among their pages. Good-As-You are actively encouraging readers to click the link because, they point out, they have to be paid by NOM for the click-through.

So NOM raise funds from anti-gay fear-mongering then have to use those funds to pay web sites. Irony indeed!