The Death of Freedom of Speech and Belief

The United Kingdom appears to be in the forefront of giving in to the demands of homosexual activists. These activists are even writing the rules themselves.

LONDON, January 30, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Government guidelines for training school officials to be more sensitive to homosexuality, instruct teachers not to use the terms "mum and dad" when referring to students' parents, and to treat "even casual" use of terms like "gay" as equal to racism.
The guidedance was commissioned by the Labour government directly from the homosexual lobby group Stonewall. The document was launched today at a Stonewall conference by Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

In Britain's current political climate, even young children have been subject to police interventions on accusations of making "racist" or "homophobic" comments. In October 2006, a 14-year-old school girl was arrested by police and detained in a cell for three hours after she asked to be moved into a group of students who spoke English in class. Stott was denounced to police for "racism" by her teachers.
In April 2007, a ten-year-old boy was questioned after the boy sent an email calling another boy "gay".
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/08013008.html

Religious organizations are not exempt.

"The guidelines specifically state that those with religious views regarded by the homosexual movement as "intolerant" must be silent. "

LONDON, March 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The UK's Sexual Orientation Regulations, that will make it illegal for Christian schools, services and businesses to operate according to their religious principles, passed its last hurdle last night in a vote in the House of Lords. A last minute attempt to defeat the legislation failed. A motion by Baroness O'Caithain that would have scrapped the Regulations on the grounds of anti-religious discrimination was voted down 168 votes to 122. The regulations will be implemented at the end of April. During the brief debate, Baroness Detta O'Caithain said the SORs are seriously flawed and drew attention to the now notorious breaches of proper democratic procedure by the government who, she said, did not allow proper parliamentary scrutiny. The Peers were not allowed to change the wording of the law but only to vote yes or no. With the passage of the SOR's, she said, the state had decided that "a citizen's right to manifest sexual orientation is absolute, but the right to manifest religious belief is not."

Faith based groups will have 21 months to adjust their policies accordingly, although it is difficult to comprehend how they can do this without seriously violating their core moral principles.

Andrea Williams, spokeswoman for the Lawyer's Christian Fellowship told the Telegraph, “The truth is these new laws will prevent Christians acting in accordance with their conscience, whether they are running an adoption agency or a business.”
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032206.html

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/mar/07032004.html

Freedom of speech has been effectively trumped.