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Shame on the reverend for supporting bigotry
• HOW typical of the mixed up thinking proliferated by some “people of faith” that the Reverend Jeremy Hobson should compare Lillian Ladele’s refusal to undertake a civic obligation of her job to conscientious objection (Forum, July 24).
Since the Civil Partnership Act was brought in, many evangelical groups have been at pains to tell us that civil partnership is not and never could be a marriage. If they truly believe this to be so (and here, I am including what Ms Ladele herself said at the tribunal) then how can a civil partnership be a religious matter? Civil partnership is a legal framework that grants equitable civil rights to people who have otherwise faced lack of inheritance rights, insurance rights, the right to be consulted or make decisions over a partner’s medical care, possessions or even funeral arrangements to name but a few. It gives those people protections in law – it does not “marry them”. Marriage became a sacrament in the 9th century and ever since has been claimed by the church as such. But many lesbians or gay men who wish to get civilly partnered are not Christian and are not engaging in a marriage.
It seems to me that Ms Ladele and others like her would be quite happy to have their cake and eat it too which makes me wonder what the attempt to deny people civil equality is based on.
In this particular case Ms Ladele seems to have been portrayed as some “lone fighter for justice” when in fact she had the financial and legal backing of the Christian Institute to heap further stigmatism on the heads of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender/ transsexual) people.
And make no mistake, attacks on LGBT people increase when pronouncements like those of the Rev Hobson or Ms Ladele are made.
Rev Hobson likens Ms Ladele to the conscientious objectors during the Second World War. But, conscientious objectors did not join the army and then refuse to bear arms. Unlike Ms Ladele those people suffered hardship and, in many cases, stigmatism for refusing to take part in killing another human being. What Ms Ladele has done is quite different. There is no lofty principle involved in refusing to undertake civil duties only when it comes to lesbian or gay people.
Ms Ladele remains in her post but refuses to carry out the duties in relation to a particular group of people, many of whom are constantly vilified.
Stigmatising gay people yet again is the thin end of the wedge of a continuous tradition that saw them put in camps by the Nazis for being gay or trans, that saw them experimented on by Nazi doctors, that saw lesbians forced into Nazi brothels and that saw the Allies reimprisoning gay men on the liberation of the concentration and work camps. It is the thin end of the wedge that saw lesbians, gays and trans people forcefully experimented on in the South African Defence Force in the 1980s and that sees them murdered in other countries today. To compare Ms Ladele’s stance to conscientious objectors is ironic as well as belittling of their memory.
Rev Hobson says it took 49 years for conscientious objectors to be recognised with a memorial in Tavistock Square. It took a lot longer than that for LGBT people to achieve even some basic human rights over here. Shame on him for supporting bigotry.
LOU HART
Director, Camden LGBT Forum
War names
• JEREMY Hobson’s article (Forum, July 24) on the principle of conscientious objection, with mention of the 60,000 who refused to fight in the Second World War, is apposite in a particular sense, for here in Camden the Peace Pledge Union is compiling a database of every British conscientious objector (CO), not only of WWII, but of WWI, and the post-WWII conscription period – 6,800 names so far, only another 80,000 to go!
It is part of a wider Conscientious Objection Project establishing a resource centre on all aspects of conscientious objection to military service and the maintenance of the right to refuse to kill.
A particular man of Camden relevance is Bert Lief, who lived in York Road (now York Way); the house was long ago demolished to expand Brecknock Primary School next door. In 1916, aged about 27, he was shipped to France with a group of COs, 35 of whom were formally sentenced to death, but immediately reprieved. Bert was not so sentenced, but did suffer long imprisonment.
Any further information on him would be most welcome, as would any information on any CO from anywhere in Britain, preferably by email, or by postal letter.
WILLIAM HETHERINGTON
Honorary Archivist
mail@ppu.org.uk
Peace Pledge Union, PeaceWorks, 1 Peace Passage, London N7 0BT
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