Another voice

I oppose a ‘gay-hate’ law because that is not what criminal legislation is for

Matthew Parris

8 December 2007

A gay hate law would be nothing more than a gimmick

Disagreeable stuff, but are we really proposing to call in the police when we hear such nonsense? And if rappers are to be hauled from the stage in handcuffs, why should actors in a production of Marlowe’s Edward II be spared? Lightborn: ‘See that in the next room I have a fire, and get me a spit, and let it be red hot.’ Is the distinction that a rap audience might be inspired to try this at home, whereas a Stratford-upon-Avon audience might not? Will the decision turn upon how sympathetic the audience may be to the words? Could we get Edward II prosecuted by taking a contingent of BNP homophobes to the theatre?

No, the briefest contemplation of the inherent difficulties will persuade an attorney general to steer well clear of the whole thing. There will be few if any prosecutions. Mr Straw will then hope to have had his cake and eaten it: pleased liberal voters with the law he’s passed, while framing it in a way which discourages its ever being prosecuted. But using lawmaking as a cheap political messaging system debauches the currency of statute.

‘The proposed new protections would categorically not impede genuine freedom of speech or the telling of jokes by comedians, as some have suggested,’ writes Stonewall. Stonewall has no basis for this assurance. There are certainly jokes about ‘niggers’ which could constitute a serious incitement to hatred, and there is no reason to suppose queer-baiting, however comedic, could not do likewise.

‘It would not hinder freedom of religious expression,’ continues Stonewall — proceeding at once to demonstrate a loss of confidence in that assurance by adding that ‘voicing temperate [my italics] opposition to same-sex relationships’ is any believer’s right. How temperate was God’s punishment of Sodom? Let us be clear about this: Islam, Judaism and Christianity all include groups (if not the majority) that encourage, on religious grounds, serious hatred of homosexuality. Religion is not always a temperate thing.