Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Let gay couples marry in church
Greening tells faith leaders to ‘keep up’
OWNERS face a £100,00 clean-up bill after travellers left a sea of rubbish when they were kicked off a field.
The community set up camp in Bromley, South East London, this month for just a fortnight but fly-tipped 250 tonnes of trash. Police shared the image on Twitter, saying: “Sadly they didn’t take their rubbish.” PRESSURE has been piled on religious leaders in the UK to allow same-sex weddings to go ahead in church.
Justine Greening, the Education Secretary and Equalities Minister, urged faith chiefs to “keep up” with 21st-century attitudes.
The senior Cabinet figure spoke ahead of Thursday’s 50th anniversary of the decriminalising of gay relationships.
Ms Greening, who revealed last year she was gay, said: “It is important the church in a way keeps up and is part of a modern country.
“I wouldn’t prescribe to them how they should deal with that.
“But I do think we are living in a country where people broadly recognise that attitudes are in a different place now to where they were many, many years ago. We have allowed same-sex marriage, that’s a massive step forward for the better.
“But people do want to see our major faiths keep up with modern attitudes in our country.”
The Government has also unveiled a crackdown on homophobic playground bullying. Schools Minister Nick Gibb, who kept his same-sex relationship secret for 29 years until marrying his partner, called on teachers to discipline pupils who use the
POPULAR rugby referee Nigel Owens has bravely spoken out about his ongoing battle with bulimia.
Owens, 46, who came out as gay in 2007, says more must be done to help people with the eating disorder.
Revealing his continuing struggle, he says: “Since the age of 18, I have word “gay”. Other announcements to mark the Sexual Offences Act 1967’s anniversary include letting gay people donate blood three months after having sex instead of a year.
There are also moves to make it easier for transgender people to chose their legal sex.
Prime Minister Theresa May, a vicar’s daughter, last week said the gay weddings issue “had to be a matter for the Church”.
But she added: “The Church of England has come a distance in terms of looking at these issues and obviously they will want to reflect as attitudes will change as society changes.”
The Church is mired in an internal battle over how to adjust to society’s changing beliefs about homosexuality.
David Cameron’s Government legalised gay civil weddings through the Marriage (Samesex Couples) Act 2013.
had bulimia nervosa. It was a secret I was still battling to control as I stepped on to the pitch to referee the Rugby World Cup in 2015.”
Owens opens up in Panorama documentary Men, Boys and Eating Disorders tonight on BBC1.
An estimated 1.6 million people have eating disorders in the UK, around 400,000 of them believed to be male. Panorama, BBC1, tonight at 8.30pm.