Bishop wrong to back liberisation of Sodomy laws

Colin Hart, Director of the Christian Institute said today :

“The Bishop of Oxford has called for the age of homosexual consent to be lowered to 16 and for the scrapping of the law which bans the promotion of homosexuality in schools.

Just in the past week the Bishop has rightly expressed concern about the high number of abortions but now he is making shockingly liberal statements on homosexuality.

The Bishop has been misled by gay rights pressure groups. The BMA admit that research shows that young homosexual men are at a greater risk of disease. The BMA strangely argue that for this reason the age of consent should be lowered from 18 to 16 in order to facilitate” safer sex” advice being given by teachers and doctors.

A decade of safer sex campaigns appears to have had little effect on the behaviour of gay men. Indeed even a study by gay researchers of those attending the London Gay Pride Festival, year after year, confirms this fact. Knowledge does not lead to a change in behaviour.

Far from being pastoral, what the Bishop wants will lead to vulnerable young men being exploited and a return to the ILEA style Homosexual School Outreach Programmes of the 1980’s.

Project Sigma is the leading research group sympathetic to gay rights. Their research has shown that 24% of gay men in the study have been raped and that 20% of men first had homosexual intercourse with a man ten years or older.

I very much hope that the Bishop will take a genuine look at the overwhelming evidence that young men are particularly vulnerable and that he will change his mind again.”

ENDS