CHURCH AUTONOMY, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND EMPOLYMENT POLICY IN BRITAIN: A LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE EMPLOYMENT PROVISIONS OF THE EQUALITY ACT 2010

How much autonomy should religious institutions have when they employ paid staff? This paper lays out two contrasting models, blanket liberalism and liberal pluralism, that come into play in this area. It then examines in some detail how Parliament dealt with the issue as it considered the Equality Act 2010, especially as the law pertained to sexual orientation. Although the Labour government would have liked to have pushed the country more toward blanket liberalism, in the end it left the law as it was, which was a victory, for the moment at least, for those churches who wished to retain their present degree of autonomy.