About 1,000 Christians sang hymns, prayed and waved banners in a torchlit protest outside Parliament last night. They were opposing legislation being debated in Parliament that is designed to outlaw discrimination against men and women on the ground of their sexual orientation.

They included mothers with their children, clergy and one campaigner who had flown in from California.

They each claimed that their protest was not homophobic, but based on a wish to preserve religious freedom. Most also made clear their abhorrence for the homosexual lifestyle. “Love the sinner, not the sin,” was the rallying cry of many.

One of the chief organisers was Bishop Michael Reid. Children handed out magazines published by his Michael Reid Ministries, in which an article claims that the new gay rights laws, already introduced in Northern Ireland and likely to come to the mainland in the spring, will mean that teachers will “be forced to promote homosexuality amongst pre-schoolers”.

Bishop Reid helped to found the Christian Congress for Traditional Values, which claims that the regulations will lead to children being indoctrinated by the State that “homosexuality is just another kind of love”.

Bishop Alfred Williams, the head of a church in New Cross, South London, claimed that the latest regulations, if introduced in England, would deprive him of his right to express his Christian values.

“If I was a teacher, the regulations would force me to teach that homosexuality is a way of life. I would not be able to stand against it. I see that as an infringement of a fundamental human right,” he said.

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