Religion, Sexual Orientation and the Equality Act 2010: Gay Bishops in the Church of England Negotiating Rights Against Discrimination

Abstract

A sophisticated understanding of human rights must look at ways in which conflicts between competing rights are negotiated. This article undertakes a case study of the interrelationship of rights related to religion and sexuality in societies, in the context of inequality between heterosexual and homosexual persons. It analyses recent Church of England guidance on appointing bishops in relation to the Equality Act 2010 and its religious exemptions to non-discrimination provisions. I investigate whether formal Church teaching and the guidance owe more to heteronormativity than the purely scriptural mandate that is claimed. I argue that the Equality Act’s preference for religion rights over sexuality rights in the discrimination exemptions for organised religions, and the Act’s understanding of what counts as a religious conviction, are better understood as a de-prioritisation of sexuality rights that reflects the prevailing structural inequalities of heteronormative secular and religious social worlds.