These articles were first published in our February edition of the newspaper, click here for more.
Data on ‘gender identity’ will be collected in the 2021 census for the first time, it was reported in early January.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the new questions asking about sexual orientation and gender identity will be optional. Since the Gender Recognition Act 2004, fewer than 5,000 people have legally changed their sex.
The No To Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign reported in late December that teachers in Scotland are being encouraged to break the law by ‘outdated’ guidance on sharing pupils’ information.
The group wrote to the Education Minister to point out that sex education guidance claims teachers must share a pupil’s private information with the child’s Named Person if it ‘affects or is likely to affect’ the child’s wellbeing. However, when the UK Supreme Court reviewed the scheme in 2016, it ruled that it breached parents’ human rights.
A Christmas Nativity Scene installed in Ilford Town Centre in the London Borough of Redbridge was smashed to pieces and the baby Jesus figurine suffered an IS-styled beheading in an act of vandalism that raised concerns about Islamists in Ilford.
A local woman noted that had this been done to any religious group other than Christians, ‘there would be an outcry’. The council did not respond to her raising her concerns about the incident.
The Big Lottery Fund said in January it will review a proposed £500,000 grant given to Mermaids, a group that promotes ‘gender transitioning’ in young children, following campaigns from David T. C. Davies MP and feminist organisations.
Big Lottery Fund said: ‘We’re grateful to those who have taken the time to write to us, and in light of the nature and volume of the communication we have received, we have decided to undertake a review of this grant.’
A Christian Guide leader claimed in mid-December she was removed from her post for allowing girls to use the traditional promise to ‘do my duty to God’.
Changes were made in 2013, replacing the 100-year-old pledge with a promise to ‘be true to myself and develop my beliefs’. By contrast, the Scouting movement maintains a promise to ‘do my duty to God’, with secular versions also allowed.
Guidelines issued in late 2018 that spell out when doctors can let patents with brain damage die, have raised concerns for many that it will introduce euthanasia by stealth.
The guidance not only reinforces that food and fluid is a form of medical treatment, rather than basic care, but also confirms the removal of a last line of defence for vulnerable patients who have no capacity to advocate for themselves. Patients who could have lived for years or decades, under this new guidance, can be dehydrated and sedated to death in a matter of weeks.
Two prominent Christians featured in the New Year’s Honours list, for their work with human rights and care projects.
Mervyn Thomas of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) was appointed a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George (CMG), in recognition of his services to human rights and freedom of religion or belief. Pastor Ade Omooba, a co-founder of Christian Concern (CC) was awarded an MBE for voluntary service with the ‘I Care’ Projects, which set up over 80 social action projects in the last 20 years.