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Religious civil partnerships amendment tabled in Lords

An amendment to the Equality Bill which would allow civil partnerships to be held in church was tabled in the House of Lords today.

It was tabled by Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli, who is gay, and would remove the prohibition which prevents them being held in religious buildings.

PinkNews.co.uk exclusively revealed the plans in November.

The Equality Bill reaches its House of Lords committee stage today and the amendment would give ministers of religion the option of presiding over the ceremonies, although it would not be compulsory.

When civil partnerships legislation was passed in 2005, a prohibition was placed on them being held in religious buildings. They must instead be carried out in other buildings licenced to host them.

Gay equality charity Stonewall worked with the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and the Metropolitan Community Church to get the amendment tabled.

Other faiths such as the Quakers have also expressed their support for recognising gay couples in the past. This year, the Quakers voted to hold gay marriages, rather than civil partnerships.

Pope calls gay marriage an 'attack on creation'

Pope Benedict XVI has called gay marriage laws an "attack" on the natural differences between men and women.

Speaking just after Portugal's parliament voted to legalise same-sex marriage, the pontiff addressed the comments to the Vatican diplomatic corps in a message which focused on environmental issues.

This is not the first time he has used environmental messages to preach about the sins of gay people.

In an end-of year address in 2008, he said that the existence of gay people threatens humanity as much as the destruction of the rainforests does and that "blurring" genders through acceptance of transgender people would kill off the human race.

According to AFP, he spoke about protecting or endangering creatures including humans in today's address and said: "One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes."

He cited "certain countries in Europe or North and South America", which is assumed to mean Portugal and Mexico City, which legalised gay marriage last month.

The Pope is due to visit the Catholic country of Portugal in April, a month after a law allowing gay marriage is expected to come into force.

He is also expected to visit the UK this year, and humanist groups have already announced their plans to protest.

Similar demonstrations were held when Pope John Paul II visited Britain in 1982.

In March, the Pope provoked anger when he spoke out about his view on HIV.

While on a flight to Africa in March, he told journalists that condoms "aggravate" the problem of HIV. He was roundly condemned for the statement, while respected medical journal The Lancet demanded that he retract the comments.

The Pope has previously counselled that abstinence is the only way to counter the spread of the disease.

Homeless charity warns of increase in gay Muslims fleeing family violence

The Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity which helps homeless LGBT young people, has said it is seeing an increase in the numbers of gay Muslims fleeing from forced marriages and family violence.

The charity told the BBC it had seen an increase in the numbers of gay Muslims contacting it for help in the last six months.

Trust worker Annie Southerst said: "They face threats of physical violence, actual violence and restriction of liberties.

"We've had people chased out of the house with knives and we have had issues around young people who had exorcisms planned to get rid of the gay demons, I suppose.

"They come to us because they're homeless, or in danger of being homeless imminently. We sort out emergency accommodation for them."

One visitor to the charity's weekly drop-in session in London, 20-year-old student Suni, told the BBC he had been imprisoned in Pakistan for three months after his parents suspected he was gay.

Suni said he had been beaten by his family, who thought making him marry a woman would cure him of homosexuality.

Fazal Mahmood, who runs a support group for South Asian and Middle Eastern gay men called Himat, said that after young men and women in Muslim families reveal their sexual orientation, they are often asked to leave.

He said: "I'm proud to be a Muslim, I'm proud to be South Asian, Pakistani and I'm proud to be gay as well.

"Unfortunately a lot of parents don't see that. All they see is 'what is my community going to feel like when they find out my son or daughter is gay?'."

The government dropped plans to make forcing someone into a marriage a crime, instead introducing Forced Marriage Protection orders in November 2008.

The Albert Kennedy Trust has used four in the last few months. They are court orders which, if breached, can result in a two-year prison sentence.

The head of the government department which deals with forced marriages said that gay and lesbian young people were particularly vulnerable to forced marriages.

Olaf Henricson-Bell said: "Forced marriage by its nature is an underground practice and the cases often go unreported.

"The individuals involved may be reluctant to mention sexuality when they ring us or when they bring their case to the attention of the authorities."

The Forced Marriage Unit is to work with the Albert Kennedy Trust to produce guidance for gay charities when dealing with young people at risk of being forced into marriages.