Posted on 12/24/2005 5:22:12 AM PST by jalisco555
POLICE questioned a retired couple for 80 minutes about their “homophobic” views after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets, it was reported last night.
Joe and Helen Roberts said that police officers warned them that their actions “were close to a hate crime” after they complained to Wyre Borough Council about its gay rights policies.
The couple claimed that the police told them they were “walking on eggshells”.
Mr Roberts, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, said he had been offended because of the council’s distribution of the gay rights leaflets and its promotion of its theatre as a venue for civil partnership ceremonies.
He said he complained to Paul Deacon, the council officer responsible for Wyre’s part in the Navajo Charter Mark campaign being run by several local authorities to offer assistance to gay and lesbian people.
Mr Roberts, 73, told the Daily Mail: “I told him I was offended. I asked him if I could put Christian literature on display alongside the gay material. He said I couldn’t because it would offend gay people.
“I said we had no objection to gay people, but we thought that homosexual practice was wrong and we were offended by the gay culture which the council is promoting.
“They warned me that being discriminatory and homophobic is in line with hate crime. The phrase they used was that we were ‘walking on eggshells’. I asked the officer, if I phoned the police with a complaint that the council were discriminating against Christians would he go to interview them?”
Lancashire police said its visit to the Robertses’ family home was a matter of routine after a complaint from the council. A spokesman added: “Words of suitable advice were given and we will not be taking any further action.”
Joan Humble, the Labour MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood, said the council’s decision to call the police was heavy handed.
She added: “Navajo is a very good project to offer support to gay people. But they should have replied to Mr and Mrs Roberts to explain their policy and allay their fears about the nature of the literature.”
A council spokesman said the couple had “displayed potentially homophobic attitudes”.
He added: “The council referred this matter to the police for further investigation with the intention of challenging attitudes and educating and raising awareness of the implications of homophobic behaviour.”
This month a Metropolitan Police officer telephoned the author Lynette Burrows at her home in Cambridge after she took part in a BBC Radio 5 Live programme. He told her that her broadcast view that gay couples were not good adoptive parents for boys had been reported and recorded as a homophobic incident.
This is a disturbing trend. The next step is to make preaching against homosexuality in a religious context a crime, as it appears to be in other European countries.
don't you know? They're so special, I mean soooo special! isn't it neat? Wonderful too that cops and gays in the UK reckon as being two special peas in a pod too. Ain't life so peachy, special people with genocidal thoughts against Christians and people asking them to reconsider and grow up.
(heavy sarcasm off)
not to mention the pedophiles crucifying kids and mentaly weak people who know better in their hearts that it is wrong but cannot express it or fear.
This is perverse and vicious cruelty... made-in-liberal-psychologia and media
You keep speaking up,Mr and Mrs Roberts.Dare the police to prosecute you and if they do,take every advantage you might get to talk to the local,national and international press!
"POLICE questioned a retired couple for 80 minutes about their “homophobic” views after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets, it was reported last night."
Good God is England that screwed up now? Gay literature is good and Christian literature is bad?
More and more I'm so thankful I don't live in Europe.
Well, it's nice to know there is no violent crime in the UK. I mean, if the police have enough time to investigate these thought criminals it must be because more serious problems have been solved, no?
first they came for our guns
then our thoughts
and, yes, then they brought in islamofascists and gangs to do the job almost multiculturaly naturaly PC... neato situation we have in England indeed...not
LOL. Yeah, I wondered about that too.
Four feet good, two feet better.
...equating gays with "genocided indians" now? Making reservations for them, "endangered"?
Weird, what can one think they could think of.... sorry, that's forbidden and called phobia or paranoia now.
Interesting how things are getting institutionalized around strange names indeed. It's like, what individual or states' rights? Now it's group rights.
They are just expressing thier cultural beleifs arent they?
But,but,but the queers only represent 2% of the population.
Horse Hockey. No way 2% can cause all this BS.
As long as they didn't say "Merry Christmas" or anything, I guess it's just a misdemeanor.
This will happen in the USA soon.
Be ready to send letters and make phone calls.
I fear you are right.
"Thought crimes must be punished!"
Exactly! This is just like the old Soviet Union. Britian's not getting there, they're already there and we're not far behind. It's not just a Christian problem it's the idea that the state can criminalize thought of any kind. It's not only the hyper-sensitive that have brought us to this point it's their government enablers and I include lawyers in that subset as they are "officers of the court".
Yes. The time is fast approaching when Christians will be legally punished for practicing their views.
Unless it's against a Christian, then it's OK.
We now have an incomplete yet better understanding of our Jewish friends.....
U.S is not too much better.
"U.S is not too much better."
On some issues, yes. On this, no. There wouldn't be a seconds thought from the vast majority of people. Certainly no police showing up and telling people what they can think.
Police tell Christian couple view on gays 'close to hate crime' (UK)"
Close doesn't count except in Horseshoes and Bocce Ball.
WOW!!! Can you spell 1-9-8-4?
Stop the incrementalism against the 2nd amendment, and all the others will be fade into obscurity.
Governments and police like in England feel emboldened when the subjects give up their sovereignty (i.e. the 2nd Amendment). They are more polite and respectful when most ctizens are armed.
In Massachusetts we just had a petition to get rid of same sex marriage which was put in Illegally by our court system.
The perverted Homosexual groups, who we have shown so much tolerance too in the past, are up in arms.
The Homosexual groups are getting lists of all who signed the petition with addressees so these homosexual groups can harass and intimidate the signers.
We really need to take the Judicial system back from the Barbarians/Homosexuals.
This is a disturbing trend. The next step is to make preaching against homosexuality in a religious context a crime, as it appears to be in other European countries.
___________________________________________________
This would merely be a disturbing trend had London not been bombed this past summer. It is a suicidal trend given that.
This is so stupid that it's scary.
I have seen Gays/Lesbian groups protesting during Christian gatherings; one I remember was at a Catholic church in New York city and the other in Boston. There probably has been the same kind of Gay demonstrations in London. I bet these are not considered hate crimes!
Just goes to prove to me that Gays are a highly protected special class and the left will ask for more and more special rights as time goes on -- on a real slipery slope.
There are Christian radio ministries in the US that have to have a different message to broadcast to Canada -- today because of these hate laws. Canada has strict laws about "homophobic" bible based thought crimes that can't be mentioned on the radio.
later ping this one out.
Indeed! All pigs are equal except some are more equal than others.
It's getting to the point where simply disagreeing with a homosexual lifestyle is a crime in itself simply on the merits of disagreement.
Like most poisons, it doesn't take much to kill you.
He added: “The council referred this matter to the police for further investigation with the intention of challenging attitudes and educating and raising awareness of the implications of homophobic behaviour.”
One HAS to wonder what other activities will get the law down on you for being "potentially homophobic attitudes".
Now, not only thought crime is a crime, but potential thought crime is a crime.
So much for "Free Speech" rights. Obviously, England is no longer a democracy.
Ho Ho Ho! LOL
That'll have the same effectiveness it's had in regards to legalized baby shredding, which is little to none.
I haven't seen the gays in London complaining against the radical Imams there. Strange, isn't it.
Christian Pastors have already been charged and tried in Denmark and Canada. The Pastor in Denmark was acquited by an appeals court, but I don't recall what happened in Canada.
Exactly !!!
The only reliable way to keep government in its place is for the population to be well armed and proficient in the use of their arsenal.
Then it is those that have posited themselves in places of Governmental authority that are the enemies of the people.
Where did I hear that before?
Thank god that is Europe. At first I thought it was in U.S. I doubt highly that they would have a problem with the old folks putting a bunch of papers in a slot next to gay literature. This seems so ridiculous, but I don't give a sh** because it did not happen in America and does not concern me at all.
Wondered that myself, there must be a hell of a lot left in the closet. Who would have thought, 20, hell 10 years ago that this could actually be happening throughout the western world. Police talking to a couple of retired people re their opinions, questions and thoughts?! This is scary - WHERE THE HELL ARE THE MEN IN THIS WORLD?!!!!
Except, no one in European Governments ever backs down because the 'little people' have guns. They send in government employed jackbooted thugs with overwhelming fire power to slaughter the people that dared to stand up for themselves.
You and I both know they'd really have to have some blood shed, not symbolic waving of muskets and not useless rhetoric.
What utter, complete bullshit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.