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In the News

  • Glasgow Live: Humanist Society calls for boycott on religious figure taking another seat on council-run school board
    May 5th, 2017

    Humanist Society Scotland are calling on minority faith groups in West Dunbartonshire to boycott the recruitment process for a new religious representative for schools.

    The Council Education Committee currently has representatives for the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church, and councillors are advertising for a member of any other faith body to fill a third seat.

    Those representatives have full voting rights in committee meetings and cannot be voted out by the community - promoting a campaign from the humanists to change the law that compels Scottish councils to appoint three church reps.

    Read more.

  • BBC: Afua Hirsch: 'Faith schools harm integration'
    May 5th, 2017

    In this Viewsnight, writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch argues faith schools lead to segregation.

    Watch here.

  • Times (£): 350 returning jihadists pose terror threat to UK
    May 5th, 2017

    The security services have identified 350 people who have returned to Britain from Syria and pose a potential terrorist threat, Whitehall sources have told The Times.

    The disclosure of a precise figure exposes the scale of the challenge facing counterterrorism agencies. Keeping one person under round-the-clock surveillance requires between 24 and 30 police or intelligence officers.

    All those returning from Syria have been assessed. While some are disillusioned with extremism and pose no danger, a large number have been trained in the use of firearms and explosives and are indoctrinated with the ideology of Islamic State.

    Read more.

  • TGC: The FAQs: What You Should Know About Trump's Executive Order on Religious Liberty
    May 4th, 2017

    On Thursday, May 4, President Trump released his long-awaited executive order on "Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty."

    An executive order is an official document, signed by the president, used to manage the federal government. Assuming they are limited to the scope of the executive action allowed by a president, executive orders have the power of federal law. While a president cannot directly create a new law or sign an executive order that violates existing law, he or she can use an executive order to specify how laws will be carried out or direct how a federal agency will carry out a task.

    The president is free to revoke, modify, or supersede his own orders or those issued by a predecessor. The Supreme Court in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer also established the framework for determining whether an executive order is Constitutional.

    Read more.

  • Conservative Woman: Three cheers for the Mail's exposure of the 'egg' donation racket
    May 4th, 2017

    At last! The media has finally picked up on the ethical and exploitative mess that is egg 'donation'.

    It would be good to think that this is partly due to The Conservative Woman highlighting this issue for several years, as we've tried to expose the industry around egg 'donation', egg freezing and IVF, that exploits women's health and purses.

    Now, thanks to the Daily Mail's front page undercover investigation, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has said they are investigating several fertility clinics accused of exploiting couples desperate to have children. Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, says the allegations are serious and worrying.

    Read more.

  • CBC: Canadian passport will have new marker for transgender travellers, justice minister says
    May 4th, 2017

    Transgender travellers will soon have another option to tick off on their passport other than "male" or "female."

    Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the government is working to update its gender identity policies right across federal departments, and they will include a revamped travel document.

    "The prime minister is very mindful of perhaps a third box or an ability to mark something other than male or female. This work is being undertaken at Passport Canada," she said. "Individual ministers and (people) within their departments are recognizing that this bill has been introduced, that there is work that needs to continue to be taken."

    Read more.

  • Australian Christian Lobby: Victorian Government rushes euthanasia to avoid electoral scrutiny
    May 4th, 2017

    Reports the Victorian Government has received an interim report advocating assisted suicide legislation reveals the tactics of those pushing for legalisation, according to the Australian Christian Lobby.

    "The trickery is to offer Victorians, and the Parliament, a false set of choices - about detail - while having them swallow the assumption that assisted suicide is beneficial and acceptable," ACL Victorian director Dan Flynn said.

    The Ministerial Advisory Panel is reportedly proposing that public debate be narrowed down to when people should be eligible to be assisted to suicide.

    Read more.

  • NY Times: 'Neutral Sex' Designation Is Struck Down in France
    May 4th, 2017

    PARIS — France's top court ruled on Thursday against granting an intersex person born with a genital malformation the right to be recognized by the state as being of a "neutral" sex.

    The plaintiff, going by the name Gaëtan Schmitt, was registered at birth as a man but has argued he perceives his sexual identity as being neither female nor male.

    Mr. Schmitt, a 66-year-old psychotherapist, first took legal action in 2015 to obtain civil status as "neutral sex." A regional court in Tours granted him the status, but the decision was overturned on appeal by a court in Orléans in 2016.

    Read more.

  • NY Times: 'Neutral Sex' Designation Is Struck Down in France
    May 4th, 2017

     France's top court ruled on Thursday against granting an intersex person born with a genital malformation the right to be recognized by the state as being of a "neutral" sex.

    The plaintiff, going by the name Gaëtan Schmitt, was registered at birth as a man but has argued he perceives his sexual identity as being neither female nor male.

    Mr. Schmitt, a 66-year-old psychotherapist, first took legal action in 2015 to obtain civil status as "neutral sex." A regional court in Tours granted him the status, but the decision was overturned on appeal by a court in Orléans in 2016.

    Read more.

  • Guardian: Most C of E bishops scared to publicly back gay clergy, says vicar
    May 4th, 2017

    Church of England bishops are being cowed by a small group of "super-conservative puritans" who believe homosexuality is a sin, leaving most too scared to speak out in support of gay and lesbian clergy and parishioners, according a leading gay vicar who is quitting the priesthood.

    Andrew Foreshew-Cain, the only gay vicar in the church to have spoken publicly about his marriage, told his congregations this week he was leaving the ranks of clergy after 27 years because "institutional homophobia" prevented him from getting another job.

    Foreshew-Cain said a handful of homosexual bishops were in relationships, and at least 20 clergy had quietly married same-sex partners against C of E rules. The church permits clergy to be in same-sex relationships that are celibate, but forbids clergy from entering into same-sex marriages.

    Read more.