A registrar in London is taking her employers to a tribunal because her religion gets in the way of her carrying out her duties.
Lillian Ladele won’t officiate at civil-partnership ceremonies in Islington, and now she’s in conflict with the council, for which she’s worked for more than ten years. She’s taking her case to an employment tribunal, claiming “discrimination or victimisation on grounds of religion or belief”. The Thisislondon.co.uk story calls it a “landmark legal case”.
Until last month, Britain’s registrars worked under an arrangement that allowed them to opt out of some ceremonies. 
That’s now changed, with the coming of the Statistics and Registration Act, which alters that relationship, bringing what were in effect freelancers under the direct control of town halls.
Ladele will represent herself at the tribunal, expected to sit later this year.
Now, that ever-reliable rent-a-quote Stephen Green of Christian Voice, has waded into the argument, saying in the Thisislondon.co.uk story, “I have a great deal of sympathy with this lady. She signed up for the honourable job of joining men and women in marriage. Now she is being asked to solemnise pretend unions of homosexuals. No wonder she feels aggrieved.”
The gay lobby group Stonewall says says Ladele’s opposition to civil partnerships, which were given legal recognition in 2005, was unjustified. “All public servants are paid to uphold the law of the land,” a spokesman says. “Doubtless there were those 40 years ago who claimed a moral objection to mixed marriages between people of different ethnic origin. Discrimination on any basis is equally unacceptable.”
10 Comments
News like this always bugs the hell out of me. Ones religious views should be a private matter, and should not be allowed to play a role in their public lives. If you can’t handle that simple request, then don’t take a job which might bring your personal morals into conflict with the requirements of that job. I reckon this woman should be sacked for not doing her job, abd should not be able to appeal the decision, because at the end of the day, she isn’t DOING HER JOB…
Ed H
It’s an interesting question. There’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind that she’s wrong to think this way.
The question for the law is, does her right to act on her beliefs trump other people’s right not to be discriminated against? On balance, I think not.
i’ve done a little research, and apparently the only grounds for appeal she can have is Article 9 of some employment law, which is however trumped by the fact that she works for the state and so is required to uphold the law of the land, and thus grant a civil union to whomever wants one. Or at least, so says my friend who is doing a masters in law…
Ed H
if she can’t do her job SACK HER
Well, the terms of the job changed. She took it under the understanding that she could opt out at will. If I took a secretarial job and the new boss thinks my job description should include stripping for him, I might have an issue as well.
I hate Stephen Green’s comment.”…Now she is being asked to solemnise pretend unions of homosexuals. No wonder she feels aggrieved”
This poor woman, she just wanted to officiate what she thought was right, but then some wierd people breaking the law of god came along and caused all this trouble. [/sarc]
People like Stephen Green give other Christians a bad name.
So what? Let her do str8 marriages. There is always someone willing to marry gays.
It’s always nice when those who were once ridiculed can join society to ridicule others…
After all, every time you see a rainbow, god is having gay sex…
Gotta agree. We need to keep our religious views to ourselves, if you’re going to take a job, you do the job, that’s the deal. You don’t get to opt out of any bit you don’t like, though I wish it worked that way for me.
You could have called yourselves just Atheists (I am one) but choosing to call yourselves Freethinkers (I am one) suggests that although you struggled for the right to disbelieve and even disrespect belief, you accept the freedom of others to believe and practice religion. Then I suggest: have the capacity to recognize a witch-hunt when you see it and not join in - that includes the honesty to not hide behind patently disingenuous pretexts such as ‘discrimination against gays’ ‘she is a public servant’.
No gay has suffered the slightest detriment from her and if anyone reads the history of the affair it will be clear that no-one was ever going to and the Council was always perfectly aware of this. But it wanted a victim and so do many people – scary.
It is fairly clear that there is some compulsion – anthropologically interesting – to persecute this thought-criminal, who has suffered severe intimidation and ostracism a work, at all costs: no expense - Islington Council is ready to devote considerable amounts of its taxpayer’s money to that end – and no dirty trick – like Stonewall trying to exploit her private life – is spared.
To take one of the non-hate posts here, Plonkee’s ‘There’s no doubt whatsoever in my mind that she’s wrong to think this way.’ But what is in your mind is irrelevant to the rights of someone else who has different things in her mind.
‘The question for the law is, does her right to act on her beliefs trump other people’s right not to be discriminated against? On balance, I think not.’
Since you wrote this the Law has pronounced. Saying that neither right trumps the other. It did say that the Council had not used proportionate means of securing a right (of gays). I.e. as a non-legal person might put it, it had unnecessarily been out-and-out officious. Ms. Ladele won the right to not be forced to do the Civil Partnerships, and she also won some of her claims concerning intimidation and discrimination. (Of course the judgment could be overturned on appeal which is going to happen, or by a new law which will be proposed if the appeal fails.)
Talking of law, to call her ‘homophobic’, which she denies, is potentially libelous.
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