The Balmoral cut short a Coalition for gathering of homophobes
Image YouTube
MEET Dr Tony Rucinski, above. He’s a Christian rent-a-gob who has the job of Director of Supporter Strategy for an outfit called Coalition for Marriage – “an umbrella group of individuals and organisations in the UK that support traditional marriage and opposed its redefinition” – and he travels around the country drumming up hatred against LGBT communities.
Why is he in the news? Because last October he was the keynote speaker at conference booked for a “Marriage Matters” event at the Balmoral Hotel, organised by Rev Harry Coulter to address the imposition of same-sex marriage by Westminster on Northern Ireland. The event was stopped halfway through when the hotel turfed out those attending after receiving a complaint.
At the weekend the Christian Institute announced it has stepped in to help Coulter, who now wants to sue the hotel.
According to the CI:
Fifty attendees had to leave the hotel along with the keynote speaker, Tony Rucinski from Coalition for Marriage, who had travelled from Wales.
Revd Coulter has written to the hotel asking for an explanation and some form of compensation but has received no response. He has now instructed solicitors.
We’ve got to put an end to what we consider to be attempts to punish people for believing in one man-one woman marriage.
Simon Calvert, the Institute’s Deputy Director for Public Affairs, said:
For the hotel to take Mr Coulter’s booking, take his money, provide signage and set up the event, only to stop it halfway through, causing maximum inconvenience and embarrassment, is an outrage.
We’ve got to put an end to what we consider to be attempts to punish people for believing in one man-one woman marriage. After all, it’s what most people believed in until recently.
The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that belief in traditional marriage is worthy of respect in a democratic society. So we are very happy to be supporting Mr Coulter in his legal action to defend his freedom to hold and express these beliefs without being humiliated like this.
In 2017 Rucinski was sacked from his £90,000-a-year post as CEO of the Board of Community Health Councils in Wales. No reason was given publicly for his suspension or sacking.
In a statement, the board’s acting Chief Executives Alyson Thomas and Clare Jenkins said:
We can confirm that the employment of Dr Tony Rucinski as the Chief Executive Efficer of the Board of Community Health Councils in Wales has now been terminated. It would be inappropriate for us to make any further comment on an internal HR matter.
Image via YouTube
It will come as no surprise to readers that the deranged Andrea Minichello Williams, above, CEO of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, is on the board of directors of the Coalition.
The Author
You Might Also Like
April 10, 2020
We need to be careful here. It is perfectly acceptable, in a democracy, to oppose and campaign against gay marriage, however mean and discriminatory that may be. And if Christian bakeries and hotels can’t turn away gay people, should other public establishments be able to turf out evangelical Christians? If there was hate speech, or incitement to violence, then fair enough, but where’s the proof? And did the hotel act out of principle, or just fear of bad publicity? I am not at all comfortable with this sinister development, as much as I loathe Christian Concern and their co-travellers. This could rebound on LGBT rights, which, according to some polls, is already losing support in the UK.