United Kindom: Defending the right to be a bigot

Neil Midgley

The Daily Telegraph

Which is more important, gay rights or property rights? asked Neil Midgley. The Conservative Party ignited an uproar last week when one of its leaders suggested that devout Christians who run bed-and-breakfasts out of their own homes should not be forced to rent rooms to gay people. “Of course the forces of political correctness” immediately attacked, with gay-rights groups saying that the Tories are obviously bigots who don’t deserve gay votes. Well, those groups don’t speak for me. “As both a gay man and a libertarian,” I’m with the Christians. My right to control what goes on in my own home is vastly more important to me “than my right to take another man to a B&B for the weekend.”

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The governing Labor Party evidently believes that anyone who doesn’t endorse its worldview doesn’t merit basic property rights. It insists on dictating to “every single citizen of this country what to think.” But bigotry can’t be simply legislated away. The only way to cure racists and homophobes is to “argue with them, show them through reason and debate that their views are repugnant and wrong.” By outlawing bigoted behavior, Labor has shown that it doesn’t trust the power of its convictions. It is conceding “that you cannot persuade bigots that they are wrong, so you’re going to send in the thought police instead to lock them up.”