LGBT Activists Call for Ban on ‘Anti-Gay’ Prayer
'hate prayer' blasted as dangerous
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LGBT activists in the United Kingdom are calling for a ban on prayer that is deemed "anti-gay" or "hate prayer," which suggests homosexuals need to convert.
Gay Evangelical Christian, Jayne Ozanne, says prayer which petitions God to aid gay people to overcome same-sex attraction is similar to hate speech.
“Prayer isn’t prayer if it causes you to hate yourself for being LGBT!” Ozanne wrote on Twitter Wednesday.
“It’s actually ‘Hate prayer.’ It is dangerous, damaging & must be included in a bill to #BanConversationtherapy.”
“I know – I spent years trying to ‘pray the gay away’ & ended up in hospital wishing I would die,” she added.
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Last year, Ozanne compared biblical Christians to “Holocaust deniers” and even “rapists” for their stance on upholding the teaching of marriage and sexuality.
Ozanne writes:
Unlike the soldiers who crucified Jesus, church leaders know they are “wounding and hurting” LGBT people by propagating biblical sexual morality.
And thus Jesus’ prayer — “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do” — does not apply to them.
Ozanne's crusade against “hate prayer" also caught the support of other gay activists.
“We need to ban hate prayer, just as we ban hate speech and hate preaching,” writes Philip Baldwin, a columnist for Gay Times.
Baldwin also declared on the BBC:
“I want a ban on prayer that has a predetermined outcome which says that you have to change and cannot be gay.”
“I want a ban on prayer that has a predetermined outcome which says that you have to change and cannot be gay.” – @JayneOzanne on @BBCr4today. We need to ban hate prayer, just as we ban hate speech and hate preaching. @LauraJanklaus #banconversiontherapy
— Philip Baldwin (@philipcbaldwin) May 12, 2021
Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner echoed the same notion, who insisted that “hate prayer” must be banned.
We need to ban hate prayer, just as we ban hate speech and hate preaching. @stonewalluk #ConversionTherapy @JayneOzanne https://t.co/lUHptaWMIc
— Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner (@LauraJanklaus) May 12, 2021
The Daily Mail reported the UK government has “finally committed to introducing legislation to ban the ‘abhorrent’ practice” of conversion therapy, “which is based on the belief that being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is a mental illness that can be ‘cured.’”
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“While conversion therapy sounds like something from a bygone age or a practice that could only be allowed in a more oppressive, less tolerant nation, it is alive and well in the UK today,” the Daily Mail warned.
Recently in the Australian state of Victoria, prayer that upholds the Bible’s teaching on sexual ethics was criminalized under a draconian new ‘conversion therapy’ law.
Christian.org reported:
The new legislation outlaws any practice that seeks to change or suppress a person’s “sexual orientation or gender identity” – including prayer. Offenders face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of AUS$10,000 (approximately £5,600).
During the twelve-month implementation period, the state Attorney General said religious educators, teachers and ministers would be ‘re-educated by the government to prevent them from breaking the law.
