‘Gay rights’ party held at number 10

The Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, reportedly hosted a private lunch at 10 Downing Street yesterday in honour of a prominent American ‘gay rights’ activist.

Political strategist and author David Mixner has been described as the most powerful gay man in America.

He is a vocal opponent of an ongoing campaign in California to protect the legal definition of marriage.

According to homosexual website PinkNews Mr Mixner was invited to the lunch with Mrs Brown along with several Government ministers.

The ministers included Chief Whip Nick Brown, Health minister Ben Bradshaw, Treasury minister Angela Eagle, and Deputy Leader of the Commons Nick Bryant.

Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of homosexual lobby group Stonewall, also attended the lunch.

“It is another small historic step forward,” he said.

According to PinkNews the Prime Minister invited members of Stonewall including co-founder Sir Ian McKellen to Downing Street in July.

Items on the agenda at that meeting included a new EU goods and services directive and the Equality Bill, both of which The Christian Institute has highlighted as potential threats to religious liberty.

Stonewall’s influence on the policies of former Prime Minister Tony Blair were revealed by Sir Ian earlier this year.

Meeting with Mr Blair three months before the 1997 general election, Sir Ian recalled that he “reeled off Stonewall’s demands, and he nodded, wrote them down and put a tick by them all. Then he said we will do all that”.

During Mr Blair’s premiership a raft of gay rights legislation was brought in.

Age of consent

The age of consent for homosexual acts was reduced from 18 to 16 in January 2001. The Government invoked the Parliament Acts to bypass opposition in the House of Lords.

Supporters claimed this would improve sexual health provision for young gay men. But in every year since the age of homosexual consent was lowered, the number of new HIV diagnoses among 16-24 year olds has been significantly higher than before the law was changed.

Section 28

In 2003, the Government succeeded in abolishing Section 28 in England and Wales. This part of the 1988 Local Government Act prevented local authorities spending public money on the promotion of homosexuality in schools or elsewhere.

Controversy over the promotion of homosexuality in schools has been increasing since the removal of Section 28. Just this month storybooks about homosexual relationships were withdrawn from primary schools in Bristol after protests from parents.

Gay adoption

Joint adoption by homosexual couples was legalised in 2002 and came into force in 2005. Critics said the move used children as political trophies and was more concerned with an adult’s rights rather than a child’s best interests.

There have been at least two scandals at Islington and Wakefield where social services have ignored signs of abuse by homosexual carers for fear of being labelled ‘homophobic’. Meantime the press are reporting that Christians are being turned down as unsuitable adopters because of their religious beliefs.

Employment laws

In 2003 the Government introduced new regulations banning sexual orientation discrimination in employment.

Recently a Church of England Diocese was sued under these regulations and ordered to pay £47,000 in compensation to an openly gay man who was turned down for a job as a church youth worker.

Civil partnerships

Homosexual relationships gained legal recognition with the Civil Partnership Act 2004. ‘Gay marriage’ in all but name, the Act extended all the legal rights and privileges of marriage to homosexual couples.

Now some public authorities are erasing the word marriage from all official documents and replacing it with the ‘neutral’ word “partner”. Christian registrars are being put under pressure to perform civil partnership ceremonies by politically correct councils.

Goods and services

The Government’s Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) of 2007 outlawed discrimination in the provision of goods and services.

At the time Tony Blair was warned that the SORs enshrined discrimination against Christians and would put some faith-based social projects out of business.

Now religious adoption agencies with a proven track record in finding homes for hard-to-place children are facing closure because of their religious beliefs on parenting.