SOME of Britain’s leading banks and blue chip
firms have been urged to withdraw their support from an awards event
that brands the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland a bigot for
opposing gay marriage. Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been nominated as equal rights charity Stonewall’s Bigot of the Year, with the recipient due to be announced at the Stonewall Awards ceremony next week.
Royal bankers Coutts, Barclays, Google and accountancy firm PWC are among the backers of the £186-a-ticket black tie event at London’s V&A Museum.
Last night, a senior Roman Catholic figure called on the corporate giants to drop their support for the ceremony because of the “spiteful” award.
John Deighan, parliamentary officer of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said: “Cardinal O’Brien is the most senior member of the Catholic Church in the UK. He is the longest serving bishop and leader of the church in Scotland and this organisation, with the help of business sponsorship, is ready to brand him a bigot. He gets that kind of vindictiveness on a daily basis. He gets really vile and hateful letters and emails and it is this kind of behaviour Stonewall and the sponsors seem to give the green light to.”
Stonewall Awards will be hosted by Gok Wan and judged by BBC newsreader Alice Arnold, Channel 4 News Culture Editor Matthew Cain, England rugby star Ben Cohen, author Val McDermid and campaigner Phyll Opoku-Gyimah.
Ceremony organisers say it celebrates the people that have made a positive contribution to the lives of gay, lesbian and bisexuals in Britain.
In the category for Politician of the Year, the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson are both nominated.
Other candidates for Bigot of the Year are Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia, Lord Maginnis, Simon Lokodo and Alan Craig. Cardinal O’Brien’s nomination says he “has led a vitriolic campaign against equality in Scotland”.
Writing in today’s Scottish Sunday Express, Mr Deighan accuses Stonewall and other gay rights campaigners of vilifying anyone who dared to defend traditional marriage.
The father-of-three writes: “Terms like ‘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. The constant promotion by the media and entertainment industry that anything gay is good has caused informed public debate to be dropped. In its place we have intolerance and intimidation.”
Mr Deighan also reports that schoolchildren were being branded “Nazi”, “fascist” and “Hitler-lover”.
Both Coutts and Barclays pointed out they were only sponsoring individual awards not the whole ceremony.
Colin Macfarlane, director of Stonewall Scotland, said the charity had nothing against people who did not agree with same sex marriage.
But he added: “What we do have a problem with is the kind of language that Cardinal O’Brien has used when talking about equal marriage. He has compared it to slavery, called it grotesque. It is very upsetting not just for the gay and lesbian community but for their families, friends and Scots in general.”
Mark McLane, Barclays’ Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, said: “Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and have informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future.”