Gays and rape centre at odds over age of consent

Making sex legal at 16 in line with rest of Britain 'would hurt the vulnerable'

Henry McDonald, Ireland editor
Sunday November 25, 2007
The Observer

Gay rights campaigners have clashed with Belfast's Rape Crisis Centre over plans to lower the age of sexual consent to 16. The British government has published proposals to bring Northern Ireland's legal process, under which it is illegal for 16-year-olds to have sex, into line with the rest of the UK.
The centre has joined a loose alliance with the Catholic church, evangelical Protestant churches and Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party to oppose the proposed change from 17 to 16. Ranged against them are organisations representing the gay community.
Eileen Calder, director of the centre, defended its decision to resist changes to the sexual offences law. 'On many issues we have been on the opposite side of the DUP and the Catholic church, in areas like abortion, where the centre is pro-choice. But on other issues, such as pornography, we have worked with the churches in campaigning against sexploitation,' she said.
'Our concern is to protect vulnerable young men and women from older sexual predators. The 17 age limit has never been used to prosecute, say, a man of 16 who gets his 15-year-old girlfriend pregnant. What we are concerned about is men in their 20s, 30s, 40s and older preying on young people. And that applies to the gay community as well as the heterosexual community.'
Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland (Glyni) said it was 'illogical' to argue that there was a huge gap between someone at 17 and another at 16. Along with the Rainbow Project, a charity supporting gays, Glyni has welcomed the introduction of the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2007, reducing the age of consent to 16.
Liam Larmour, Glyni's spokesman, said: 'We appreciate the concerns around sexual assaults, but would remind these agencies that any one individual is a potential victim to an assault of this kind, and age may not be a factor in this unfortunate circumstance.'
He said both organisations were concerned that young people were being criminalised in the eyes of the law. 'To many young people, having sex at 16 is no different than having sex at 17, and is their choice of what to do with their own bodies. After all, you can get married at 16 with parental consent, you can smoke, choose your GP and buy your own fireworks, and for the moment can leave school too,' he said.
'You also start paying national insurance at this age, though you can't vote to determine its usage until you are 18. If we can deem 16-year-olds mature enough to make these decisions, and take part of their wages from them, why can't society trust them to make decisions about who they choose to have sex with, without being criminalised for it? Is it fair that we can determine a 16-year-old in England, Scotland or Wales to be more sensible, mature and sexually responsible than a 17-year-old in Northern Ireland?'
But Whitehall faces an uphill struggle to create parity in the age of consent law across the UK. The DUP has vowed to resist any changes, though Northern Ireland Office Minister Paul Goggins does have reserve powers to impose reforms.
Goggins will also face fierce resistance from the Catholic church and most Protestant churches. At the next monthly conference of the Irish Catholic bishops, a statement will be issued denouncing the lowering of the age of consent and pledging a broad-based campaign against the change.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission declined to comment on the proposed law change.