Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
But you're still skirting around the issue rather than tackling it head-on. There is a level at which it cannot be a crime for a person to express a personal view about homosexuality (it happens, for example, in church pulpits).
Were the application as absolute as you are suggesting, it would be an offence to print the Bible or to read certain passages of it aloud in public. Yet clearly Christian ministers are not being rounded up and prosecuted en masse. I mention Christianity as it's an example I'm familiar with. I daresay there are others.
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Context Chris, context.
The christian minister / church analogy is a perfectly defensible (as such - non prosecutable) scenario in that those doing as you posit are quoting the "word" of a third party in the context of their job.
They could, arguably, offer the defence that they are exercising their religious freedom (which is also protected under the Public Order Act).
Marty
Section 5 of the Public Order Act "Harassment, alarm or distress" makes no mention of "intent". The offences stated are prosecutable under that particular section whether intentional or not.