Church should accept equal rights for gays, says David Cameron

David Cameron has criticised the Church of England over its attitudes to homosexuality, calling for it to accept equal rights for gays, writes Ruth Gledhill.

He said that gays should be able to adopt, and he believed that he could convince even a Roman Catholic Archbishop in Scotland that “there are occasions when gay adoption is a perfectly sensible and straightforward thing”.

In an interview with the gay magazine Attitude, the Conservative Party leader said that “our Lord Jesus” would back equality and gay rights if he were alive.

He said that he did not want to get into a row with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, but the Church should recognise that equal rights for gays was “essential”.

Mr Cameron apologised last summer on behalf of his party for the Section 28 legislation banning promotion of homosexuality in schools.

• Full story at The Times.

• Posted in Elections, Roman Catholic Church, Sexuality