Friday 10 May 2019

Ann Widdecombe: You cannot condemn Prince Harry and Meghan for championing LGBT rights.

This week, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan celebrated the birth of their son, Archie.

The government conceded that UK will participate in European Union Parliamentary elections,

And Ann Widdecombe announced that she will stand as aa candidate to be MEP for Brexit Party. 

Also, by coincidence I read a bit of old .news, though it was new to me. Shortly before Harry and Meghan married, they let it be known that they would champion the rights of LGBT people around the world. Anne, writing in the Daily Express,  said that they should not champion rights but should champion plights.

I responded in an open letter to Anne in the following Open Letter


Open letter to Ann Widdecombe

Dear Miss Widdecombe,

I realise that this letter is a very slow response to something that was published a year ago. This is because I only just came across the opinion piece you wrote for the Daily Express with the misleading headline:
“Meghan Markle will be a breath of fresh air in a stuffy family” says Ann Widdecombe.

I would take you to take you to task for that statement alone, except that there is so much more. Not only is it deeply insulting to Queen Elizabeth, but it is extremely rich coming from one of the most stuffy people I know. What was made to sound like a compliment to Duchess of Sussex, was in fact completely undermined by your real purpose of the opinion piece.

You wrote: Earlier that week my doubts had grown when reports appeared in the press about how she and Harry were going to champion the rights of the LGBT community.
First, royals don't champion rights, they champion plights. That's what Diana did with the victims of AIDS and landmines and very effective she was too.

I am not sure what qualifies you, Ann, to lecture royalty on what they may or may not champion.
Why on earth should the royals not champion human rights? You say they are championing the rights of the LGBT community — actually they are the rights of LGBT people.

How can you take the view that human rights are controversial? These are the same rights that you take for granted, and would become extremely vocal if you believed that your rights were not being respected.

Here in the United Kingdom, the road to equality began in 1967 with the limited decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, with changes in Scotland and Northern Ireland coming many years later, and has continued to this present day , with the occasional blip, such as the notorious Section 28, of which I understand you were a huge fan. Now we have equal marriage (except in Northern Ireland) which is very significant step towards full equality, though, full equality is not yet completely realised.

However, the UK is way ahead in terms of equality than many other countries, including a significant number of Commonwealth countries that still criminalise homosexuality with punishments as severe as death by stoning, in Brunei, and lengthy imprisonment. So for many LGBT people who are citizens of the Commonwealth and subjects of the Queen, their human rights are being denied in the most horrendous ways. Their very right to life itself is challenged. People should have a right to protections under the law. That is, if someone threatens the life of a person, they have a right to seek help from the police and if they are the victims of crimes, they have a right to report those crimes to the police and have them investigated and have the perpetrators charged and prosecuted. However many LGBT people in these countries cannot risk making such a report. Lesbians who are subjected to what the the perpetrators regard as “corrective rape”.

You say the royals champion plights - I agree, if by that you mean speaking out against the plights of many shamefully treated. Championing the rights of LGBT people in the Commonwealth is to speak out against their shameful treatment by regimes that do not treat all their citizens with equality and justice.

This is a moral issue and not merely a political issue, as you would have us believe. Equality is a core British Value — this pertains to sexual orientation and gender identity as much as it applies to race, religion or sex. Since the Royals represent Britain, it is right that they also speak out on issues of equality and against instances, of which there are too many, of human rights abuses against people by reason of their being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Every year many asylum seekers come to UK as refugees. A significant number of those will have faced persecution in their own countries because they are LGBT. If we could prevail upon countries to change their policy in regard to LGBT people, we might be able to reduce those who seek asylum for that reason. But that should not be our primary motivation.

I am fully aware that most hostility towards LGBT people is wrapped up in religious perception that homosexuality is sinful. As a Christian myself, I do not accept that characterisation and believe such an interpretation, at least as far as Christianity is concerned, is based on a faulty hermeneutic. However, even if that were true in regard to Christianity, we cannot impose on the entire populace laws based entirely on a religious doctrine where not everyone subscribes to those doctrines.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex understand this, clearly Ann, you do not.

Yours in complete sincerity,

John

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I am not so gullible as to think that Anne would change her perspective one iota, and I certainly would not hold my breath for an apology from her, but I do hope people in the area where she stands for election, will read this and really understand that Ann Widdecombe  is essentially against the human rights of LGBT people. Please do not elect this person as an MEP.

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