Pope Benedict

Responding to the Pope's attack on the UK equality laws, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage! said:
"The Pope's criticism that British equality legislation 'violates the natural law' is a coded attack on the legal rights granted to women and gay people.

"His ill-informed claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of churches to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law.

"It signals that Benedict is likely to make highly partisan political criticisms during his visit in September. Most British people will not welcome a meddlesome pontiff who opposes our equality laws. They will especially resent the fact that the UK government asking taxpayers to cough up around £20 million to finance his visit."

The gay Humanist charity the PTT (Pink Triangle Trust) has reacted angrily to the Pope's statements.

The PTT's secretary, George Broadhead, said:
"This is a thinly veiled attack on the anti-discrimination legislation concerning LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people. His claim that our equality laws undermine religious freedom suggests that he supports the right of churches to discriminate in accordance with their religious ethos. He seems to be defending discrimination by religious institutions and demanding that they should be above the law.

"This Pope has shown himself to be paranoid about homosexuality. His opposition to LGBT rights knows no bounds. He has declared that saving humanity from homosexual behaviour was as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. This must be the most outrageous and bizarre claim yet made by someone who has already got a well-deserved reputation as one of the most viciously homophobic world leaders on a par with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

"But his entrenched homophobia is not the only reason for criticizing the visit. The taxpayer in this country is going to be faced with a bill of some £20m as the visit will be paid for by the Government not the Vatican.

"It is imperative that the strongest possible protest be made when his so-called holiness visits the UK. This is not without precedent. During the last papal visit to the UK by John Paul I in 1982, a protest called POPE (People Opposing Papal Edicts) was instigated by the Gay Humanist Group. It had the support of other gay and secular organisations including the Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the National Secular Society. On the occasion of the impendingvisit we must pull out all the stops to demonstrate our opposition."

To sign a petition against state funding of the Pope's visit:
www.secularism.org.uk/petition-the-pm.html