Ruth Kelly and anti-discrimination

Oh dear oh dear. One of my least favourite Cabinet members, Ruth Kelly (you know, the one that looks like a 10-year old boy and whose voice is just a little too deep) is in the news again. Before the last election, the Lib Dems called for anti-discrimination laws in the area of goods and services on the grounds of sexuality. Following an EU Directive, it’s now illegal to discriminate in the field of employment on the ground of sexuality, and the Lib Dems wanted a similar law implemented for goods and services. When the Equality Bill was introduced to Parliament in 2005, and amendment was put forward to this effect, was supported by the government and can now be found in the Equality Act 2006 Part 3. All seemed fine. However, it now emerges that Ruth Kelly – Minister for Equality – is pushing for an exemption so that religious groups can continue to discriminate.

I was greatly concerned when Ruth Kelly was appointed as Minister for Equality. Labour has a pretty good – although not perfect – record on gay rights, but Ms Kelly’s was frankly appalling. She has missed almost every vote on gay rights issues, and has even voted against gay adoption. She has furthermore refused to say whether or not homosexuality is a sin. We all know about Ms Kelly’s membership of Opus Dei and in theory that shouldn’t be a problem. Having religious beliefs in no way hinders your ability to be a politician unless you allow those beliefs to interfere with your work. Ruth Kelly has clearly allowed her religious views to play a part in her political activities and this is deeply disturbing.

Ruth Kelly is supported in her quest by Tony Blair, but there are, thankfully, opponents to her plans. Alan Johnson – one of the Cabinet members I do like – has called on her not to water down the plans, and the Lib Dems’ equality spokesperson, Lorely Burt, has been brilliant:

"We fully believe in the rights of all groups to freedom of speech, whatever the views they espouse may be. However, in any commercial sphere we should not allow any individual or group belief to justify discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, gender or sexual orientation.

"The Government must not water down these proposals. We had always feared that Ruth Kelly’s personal beliefs would make her unsuitable to be a champion of gay rights. Unfortunately these fears have become reality and she should now stand down."

The conflict is a difficult one. Gay people should have the freedom not to be discriminated against, but religious people must also have the freedom to express their religious beliefs. How do you satisfy both parties? It seems faith schools are concerned that what they teach about sex may be affected, and Christian B & Bs are worried they’ll have to let gay couples rent rooms. I can understand this, even if I don’t agree with it. People are perfectly entitled to have their own vies on homosexuality, and even to express them. Nevertheless, to deny a black person into a hotel, or a woman to buy groceries simply because of their colour or gender is unacceptable, whatever the views of the people wishing to discriminate against them. There does seem to be a tendency to tolerate discrimination on the ground of sexuality where it wouldn’t be tolerated on other grounds. Imagine, for example, that the government banned black people from marrying. There would be outrage. But gay people can’t get married and yet there’s no outrage at all. We need to work to remove this “tolerance” of discrimination and the new anti-discrimination laws will hopefully go someway to do this. Lorely Burt and Alan Johnson are absolutely right in supporting tough measures on this issue, with no exceptions. We can only hope that Ruth Kelly and Tony Blair are persuaded too.