BY Ian Dunn | November 2 | 
2 COMMENTS 
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‘Gay rights’ group accused of bigotry
— Banks threaten to take back support for Stonewall’s annual awards over intolerance
Two major banks have threatened to withdraw their backing for homosexual lobby group Stonewall’s annual awards this week after a senior Scottish Church official accused the homosexual rights group of engaging in ‘intolerance and intimidation.’
Barclays and Coutts banks both currently sponsor Stonewall’s awards but have now issued statements distancing themselves from Thursday night’s award ceremony, in particular the ‘Bigot of the Year’ award.
Personal abuse
John Deighan (right), the parliamentary officer for Scotland’s bishops, said that ‘Cardinal Keith O’Brien and Archbishop Philip Tartaglia [of Glasgow] are amongst the nominees for the award, presumably because they hold the seemingly unpalatable view that marriage is a relationship between a man and woman.’
“Hundreds of public bodies give sizeable financial donations to Stonewall and it receives generous government funding for the myriad projects that it runs,” Mr Deighan (right) said. “The ‘Bigot of the Year’ award reveals the depth of Stonewall’s intolerance. Terms such as ‘bigot’ and ‘homophobe’ have been promoted relentlessly, a background beat to the increasing demands of pressure groups whose sights are set on redefining marriage and ruthlessly crushing any dissent.
Mr Deighan said he had repeatedly received vehement personal abuse from homosexual activists, which had grown exponentially worse in the past five years.
“It is time to acknowledge we are in a propaganda war,” he said. “Disgracefully, only one side is being subsidised and publicly funded. Many may find it easy to stand back and not rush to the defence of Church leaders such as Cardinal O’Brien and Archbishop Tartaglia. Their high profile status puts them at the top of a ‘hit list.’ They may be today’s victims, we may all be tomorrows.”
Cardinal O’Brien told the SCO that he was delighted with Mr Deighan’s comments ‘so much of which other people think but are afraid to say.’
The cardinal also hopes that this will make businesses and the government think about what they are supporting.
Backfire
Mr Deighan also said that on this occasion the aggression of the ‘gay’ rights lobby may have ‘backfired on them’ as shown by the concern of the two banks sponsoring the awards.
A statement by Coutts & Co said the company had not been aware of the Bigot of the Year award. “Coutts are sponsors only of Stonewall’s Writer of the Year award and have in no way been involved in the judging or support of the Bigot of the Year category,” it said. “We have advised Stonewall that we will be withdrawing our support of the awards unless they remove this category.”
Mark McLane, managing director and head of global diversity and inclusion at Barclays said they too were concerned and could review their support of Stonewall in the future. “I have recently been made aware of the inclusion of a ‘Bigot of the Year’ category in the awards,” he said. “Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and we have informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future. To label any individual so subjectively and pejoratively runs contrary to our views on fair treatment, and detracts from what should be a wholly positively focused event.”
— Stonewall named Cardinal O’Brien as “Bigot of the Year’ after the SCO went to press. Click here for more.
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That the Equality Network today won the Campaign of the Year for their Equal Marriage campaign which has been honest, factual and respectful says much for them and nothing at all for the hurtful personal and bigoted comments coming from Keith O’Brien. Even his Scotland for Marriage cronies have distanced themselves from his remarks.
Cardinal O’Brien’s comments have never been personal. Most people who refer to his comments in this way have, clearly, never read his comments in full and their attacks are, consequently, not based on fact. Often quoted is the “grotesque” reference to same-sex marriage and they take this as a reference to homosexuals – which it is obviously not. A fine example of this was on BBC Question Time just after he made these comments. People on the panel such as Will Young clearly making a judgement on something he admitted he hadn’t even read! However, the Stonewall award clearly highlights – if it were needed – that as far as they are concerned, it’s ok to have an opinion as long as it agrees with their own. If he were a lesser man, I’m sure the Cardinal would find the award hurtful, personal and bigoted.