MONITOR: AGE OF CONSENT

Following the vote to permit gay sex at age 16

The Pink Paper

There is a view that winning an equal age of consent has been an easy victory - that the Labour Government is making one concession to gay rights and there it will stick. There are no political short-cuts. We would be naive if we thought that presenting a list of demands to the Labour government, however, huge their majority, will guarantee change. The Labour Government will only move when they are convinced that society accepts the changes for which we are fighting.

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Daily Telegraph

Sooner than Tony Blair thinks, most parents will view him with contempt for espousing family values while effectively voting for child abuse. Their children have been set free - but, before long, they will be everywhere in chains

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Evening Standard

Teenagers are often confused about their own sexuality. There remain good reasons for suggesting that if the issue is in the balance, they are more likely to have happy and fulfilled lives as heterosexuals, because of sexual and reproductive realities which no law can change.

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Birmingham Post

Because there are now some openly homosexual MPs does not mean the country as a whole takes the same liberal view of homosexuality.

Given that homosexuality is physically dangerous - some would say morally and psychologically dangerous as well - it is surely unwise of MPs to equate it legally with heterosexuality.

Taken to extremes, this legislation could condemn some vulnerable young men to death from Aids before they were mature enough to recognise the importance of warnings about "safe sex".

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Richard Littlejohn

The Sun

Why is the Government so accommodating towards homosexuals with an appetite for ripe young chickens yet so hostile towards those of us who prefer our meat red-blooded, well hung and on the bone?

The Guardian

Bishops and legislators have quite separate roles. Indeed, even the bishops concede that "actions may be legal without being morally right". Precisely. Reform is long overdue. Equal treatment is a basic human right.

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Daily Mail

By surrendering so enthusiastically and in such numbers to the gay lobby not only are politicians disregarding public opinion, they are also choosing to ignore the guidance of all the main religious communities in this country.