Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations

In the beginning, there was the sexual orientation regulations..

In the 1980s parliament passed legislation that intentionally discriminated against gay and lesbian people, and it is a sign of how much has changed since then that ministers are now putting in place rules that would make such a thing illegal. The sexual orientation regulations, which came into force in Northern Ireland on January 1 2007 and will apply in England and Wales from April 2007, require organizations to treat gay and lesbian people just as they would treat anyone else. Discrimination on the grounds of race, gender or religion is already disallowed, and the change in the law is a sensible recognition of a form of equality which already been accepted by parliament in everything from a single age of consent to civil partnerships.

And then Catholic adoption agency can turn away gay couples..

Roman Catholic bishops have welcomed a high court ruling that will allow a Catholic adoption agency to reject gay couples as parents.

Catholic Care, which serves Leeds, Middlesbrough and Hallam in South Yorkshire, won its appeal for an exemption from sexual orientation regulations that say it must consider applications from gay couples. The agency warned it would abandon its work of finding homes for children, as many others have done, rather than comply with the law.

The bishop of Leeds, the Rt Rev Arthur Roche, insisted there was no homophobic element to the case and claimed that children would have been "seriously disadvantaged" had Catholic Care not won the appeal.