Those crazy Catholics

According to a report in the Scotsman, a devout Catholic couple have lodged a complaint of sexual and religious discrimination against Strathclyde Police .. just because the ’status’ on their civilian employee records has been changed from “married” to “married/civil partnership”.

Apparently, Mrs McQuade is scared that her and her husband can now be mistaken for homosexuals – she told the newspaper that:

“The concept of homosexuality is not compatible with our faith. We find it offensive that people don’t know if we are married or civil partners.”

.. upon which a not very convincing Mr McQuade interjected:

“No slur is intended on the gay community.”

The McQuades also argue that, because the civil partnership laws don’t affect single people, they are now treated less favourably than any of their single colleagues. Uh?

Strathclyde Police’s defence is that ‘outing‘ an individual’s sexual orientation against their wishes (only same sex couples can enter a civil partnership), or without their clear permission, is inappropriate and a breach of privacy.

If this was really about religious discrimination, as the McQuades disingenuously claim, how come they didn’t object that there was no way to distinguish between civil and religious marriages .. or even marriages entered into under different faiths?. Surely they wouldn’t want to be confused with protestants, Anglicans, Muslims and heathens.

NOTE: Guidance to employers from the Government’s independent Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) clearly states that no employer should make employees identify themselves as being either ‘married’ or in a ‘civil partnership’ (because the two statuses are treated the same, there is therefore no conceivable legitimate need for them to be separately identified).