My passion

In America yet another gay teenager has been murdered because of his sexuality. A teenage shot Lawrence King after he had asked him to be his Valentine.

At the same time in the UK, the Daily Mail (who else) are outraged about a foster couple who are not allowed to look after a child because of their homophobic beliefs. The couple said:


"I couldn't do that because my Christian beliefs won't let me. Morally I couldn't do that, spiritually I couldn'tdo that. I cannot understand why sexuality is an issue when we are talking about boys and girls under the age of ten."

So many issues here. Firstly, ardent Christians forcing their opinions on young vulnerable children. But more importantly, intolerance of sexuality is what breeds hate. Telling a child that you do not condone homosexuality perpetuates prejudice and leads to the idea that being gay is wrong. That then leads to murder and abuse of gay people. It is an obvious and logial end point. Sadly we can't control who can have children naturally. There are many homophobic, bigoted and racist people who because they are fertile can breed their own mini bigots. But where you have vulnerable foster children, it is our duty as a society to ensure that they are not placed with families who will fill their heads with prejudice and intolerance.

The irony is that the couple are black. Imagine if they were white and saying that they "didn't condone black people".

This is an issue that I am passionate about.