UK: Judge Admits She was Wrong and Calls for Rethink on Gay Rights

Daily Mail
June 21, 2014

article-0-0B208E58000005DC-912_306x452
Baroness Hale has called for a rethink on religious and gay rights, six months after she condemned a Christian couple for turning away sodomites from their hotel.

A judge who condemned a Christian couple for turning away gay guests from their hotel  yesterday said her decision may have been wrong.

Supreme Court deputy president Baroness Hale called for a rethink on religious and gay rights six months after she rejected the B&B owners’ arguments in a key test case.

Lady Hale said in a speech that the law has done too little to protect the beliefs of Christians. And she cast doubts over her own judgment in the landmark case in which a gay couple sued Christian hoteliers Peter and Hazelmary Bull.

Mr Bull, 74, and his 70-year-old wife refused a double room at their Cornish hotel to Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall in 2008 because they were not a married heterosexual couple.

article-0-1EF02EE700000578-802_634x639
There was some good news for Peter and Hazelmary Bull last week as they were told that they will not be liable for the legal costs of the trial. This picture is from back when they thought they would be.

The incident led to a string of court cases, which culminated in defeat for the Bulls at the Supreme Court – where Lady Hale, leading four other judges, ruled that the rights of the gay couple outweighed the conscience of the Christian couple. Lady Hale declared in her Supreme Court ruling that we should be ‘slow to accept’ the right of Christians to discriminate against gay people.

But in March she acknowledged that the laws which ignore Christian consciences might not be ‘sustainable’. Last week, in a highly unusual move, Lady Hale and her fellow judges ordered that the Bulls will not be liable for legal costs – a decision which spares them a huge bill which would pay for the lawyers who represented Mr Preddy and Mr Hall.

And in a speech to Irish lawyers yesterday she gave an indication that her judgment against the Bulls may have been too harsh, asking whether courts would be better off taking a ‘more nuanced approach’.

Lady Hale suggested that the law should develop a ‘conscience clause’ for Christians like the Bulls.

article-0-1EF02EDF00000578-477_634x478
Steven Preddy and Martyn Hall, the two faggots who tried to force the Christian couple to let them bugger each other in one of their rooms. Why is it fine for faggots to turn people away from their clubs and bars for being straight, but it is not ok for straight people to turn queers away from their B&B?

Read More