It says that in order to protect freedom of conscience, religion and belief, exemptions should assure that no one will be required to perform same-sex marriages, admit homosexuals to their religious organizations, or allow them to join in their activities or use their premises if this would violate their religious belief. It recommends that the new Regulations for Great Britain contain a narrow definition of harassment on the basis of sexual orientation in order to avoid incompatibility with freedom of speech religion and belief.
The report also recommended that there be no exemption for government-supported faith schools from the regulations that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It says:
Regulations prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination should clearly apply to the curriculum, so that homosexual pupils are not subjected to teaching, as part of the religious education or other curriculum, that their sexual orientation is sinful or morally wrong. [This] would not prevent pupils from being taught as part of their religious education the fact that certain religions view homosexuality as sinful. In our view there is an important difference between this factual information being imparted in a descriptive way as part of a wide-ranging syllabus about different religions, and a curriculum which teaches a particular religion’s doctrinal beliefs as if they were objectively true. The latter is likely to lead to unjustifiable discrimination against homosexual pupils.LifeSiteNews yesterday reports on reactions to the Joint Committee's report.
