Gay Rights Win in the UK

A bid to stop new UK gay rights laws was blocked Tuesday despite protests from a number of religious groups who claimed the legislation would force them to act against their religious beliefs, Reuters reports.

About 1,000 demonstrators staged a protest outside the parliament while representatives of the different groups present delivered a petition to the Queen.

"Most of the people here are standing for freedom of conscience in the sense of 'if you believe something is wrong the law shouldn't make you do it,'" one of the demonstrators told Reuters.

The new law would ban discrimination based upon sexual orientation in the same way existing legislation bans discrimination based upon sex, religion, and race. It would be illegal not to offer the same goods and services to gay people as to everybody else just because of their sexual orientation.

Religious groups argue the law infringes on their freedom of conscience, punishing them from acting according to their beliefs.

According to gay right groups all anti-discrimination laws somewhat restrict such actions and the proposed legislation would simply extend existing laws to homosexuals.

"It would not be acceptable in the areas of race, disability, age or religion or belief, and is not acceptable here. Either we hold human rights to be universal or we do not," said Andrew Copson, of the British Humanist Association.

With the new laws parishes will be obliged to rent out their properties for gay wedding receptions and hotels would no longer be able refuse to rent rooms to gay couples. On the other side, gay bars can no longer stop straight people from entering their premises.

Similar laws are already in place most over Europe, and human rights experts say the legislation would bring British law closer to that of other nations.

"It would be a major setback for the government if it failed to bring in these regulations," Robert Wintemute, professor of human rights at King's College, London told Reuters.