■  Sir Elton John and former Polish President Lech Walesa on stage together at the Sopot Festival in Poland on Saturday  September 2.  The audience gave Sir Elton an ovation when he said: "I'm just a performer who plays people some music. I hope that my music helps people to forget about their problems for few hours. But I'm also a gay man and I've heard that gay people face violence in Poland. Leave us [gays] alone. We don't want to harm anybody. We just want to love and be loved."  (photo courtesy KPH)

LONDON, November 12, 2006  –  The UK Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has given its backing to Sir Elton John’s claim that religion promotes the hatred of gays, saying that it is self-evidently true.

But the group draws the line at his suggestion that religion be banned.

Commenting on Sir Elton’s remarks, that were made in a discussion last August with Jake Shears of Scissors Sisters and published today by The Observer Music Monthly, GALHA’s secretary George Broadhead said: "It should be quite clear to anyone that these days most hostility to gay relationships and gay rights comes from religious sources, notably Evangelical Anglicans, Christian pressure groups like the Christian Institute, the Vatican, and Islamic organisations.

“Hardly a day passes without some anti-gay proclamations, fatwa or edict being issued by one religious leader or another,” he said.

“Religionists are campaigning against our human rights, peddling their bigotry, telling us we’re sick, diseased, perverted and destined for hell-fire, or promoting quack therapies to ‘cure’ us.

“However, Sir Elton’s suggestion that religion be banned is unworkable,” Mr. Broadhead continued. “Any attempt to ban it would simply make it stronger and more determined.

“The right approach is to argue and debate and try to convince religious believers that they are wrong when it comes to gays.

But while we believe that all of them – the pastors, the Pope and the imams – are entitled to express their views, they should not be permitted by law to impose them on others, which is what they are trying to do at present.

“Religious organisations are trying hard to increase their political power and influence on the back of hatred of gay people.

“The campaigns in America by evangelical Christians to thwart gay marriage and reduce the rights of gay people are proof of that.

“These same tactics are being used by UK organisations like the Evangelical Alliance and the Christian Institute.

“Sir Elton John speaks for many when he pinpoints religion as a primary generator of homophobia,” Mr. Broadhead concluded.

SEE ALSO

Russian Gay Activist Tells London Audience He Will Fight On.  Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseev has vowed to fight on after Moscow Pride 2006 was officially banned by Moscow’s mayor and the resulting protest was disrupted.  He was speaking at the GALHA annual lunch.  (UK Gay News, November 12, 2006)