Join anti-gay fight, MP tells teachers

This how far Ugandan leaders are still Begotten

Masaka- The Masaka Municipality Member of Parliament, Mr Mathias Mpuuga, has called upon teachers to fight against homosexuality in schools.
Mr Mpuuga made the call at the Masaka Municipality Teachers Day celebration in Masaka Town at the weekend.

Mr Mpuuga said he was aware of some clandestine agents who lure young people in schools into homosexuality by promising them sponsorship and jobs.

“Please use your position as teachers and talk your students out of such behaviour since they could contract HIV or become social misfits in their communities. They are especially targeting our vulnerable children in schools with no one to assist them financially,” he said.

With regard to poor pay teachers receive, he suggested to them to strive to acquire more skills such as tailoring and computer literacy to help them get extra income.

Mr Amos William Jjuko, the vice chairperson of Masaka Municipality Head Teachers Association, expressed concern over private school authorities who offer employment to teachers without giving them appointment letters and setting clear set job conditions.

“Many teachers don’t have appointment letters though they have worked for long at their particular schools,” he said. “Teachers lack security of their jobs because they don’t have permanent contracts with their bosses and this should be rectified.”

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Join-anti-gay-fight--MP-tells-teachers/-/688334/2521162/-/n5los9/-/index.html

Sainsbury's told lesbian couple to stop kissing or leave supermarket after customer complained

Student Annabelle Sacher was shopping in her local Sainsbury’s when she decided to give her girlfriend a spontaneous peck on the cheek.

One fellow customer, however, didn’t see the ‘light kiss’ as a romantic gesture – and reported the couple to a security guard who allegedly then told them to leave.

The female guard explained that the shopper had complained that the lesbian clinch was ‘disgusting’, and that she was ‘worried for her child’.

Infuriated, the 22-year-old reported the incident to fellow gay rights activists online, declaring that Sainsbury’s was guilty of perpetrating a hate crime and that she had a ‘human right’ to kiss in the supermarket.

The row began on Saturday – which was National Coming Out Day – in a Sainsbury’s in Brighton, a town known for its vibrant gay scene.

In a post on gay rights charity Stonewall’s Facebook page, Miss Sacher said: ‘The security guard later apologised, saying that she herself was gay and had simply been asked to speak to us by another customer who found us “disgusting” and was “worried for her child”.

‘I felt sorry for the guard. However, the fact is that she perpetrated a hate crime on behalf of Sainsbury’s.

‘My partner and myself should not have been made to feel humiliated simply because we were two women. It is our legal and human right to express ourselves and today Sainsbury’s took that right away and made me feel like a lesser human being.’

The English literature student at Sussex University in Brighton added: ‘I am outraged and deeply humiliated by this incident.’

Last night a Sainsbury’s spokesman said that it had made a full apology, promised similar incidents would not happen again and said it had paid money to a charity of Miss Sacher’s choice. 

The spokesman denied the security guard had told Miss Sacher to leave, and instead asked her to stop kissing, but apologised for her treatment all the same.

‘This should never have happened – it is clear that she and her partner were not behaving inappropriately and we are very sorry that they were treated in this way,’ the spokesman said.

‘We have called her to apologise and will be making a donation to a charity of her choice.’

Miss Sacher, who is originally from Hampstead Garden Suburb, north London – where she was brought up by her leading lawyer father Jonathan, 59, and estate agent mother Marla, 55, in a £3million house – said she was delighted with the response. She has since made the supermarket one of her ‘favourites’ on Facebook. 

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Sainsbury's in Brighton has been forced to apologise to the couple for asking them to leave the store if they did not stop kissing  - because another customer had called them 'disgusting'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2790020/sainsbury-s-told-lesbian-couple-stop-kissing-leave-supermarket-customer-complained.html

Egypt: 7 Held for Alleged Homosexual Conduct

Unlawful Arrests Undermine Basic Freedoms, Rule of Law

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should immediately release seven men arrested on September 6, 2014 for allegedly “inciting debauchery,” Human Rights Watch said today.  Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the men detained and “physically examined” after an online video emerged showing the men attending what appeared to be a same-sex marriage ceremony on a Nile riverboat.

The arrests are the latest of a long line of cases in which Egyptian authorities have persecuted men suspected of homosexual conduct. In the most recent convictions, in April, four men were sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

“Over the years, Egyptian authorities have repeatedly arrested, tortured, and detained men suspected of consensual homosexual conduct,” said Graeme Reid, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program at Human Rights Watch. “These arrests represent another assault on fundamental human rights and reflect the Egyptian government’s growing disdain for the rule of law.”

In a statement announcing the arrests, the prosecutor general’s office accused the men of broadcasting footage that “violates public decency,” and urged investigators to quickly refer the suspects to trial, “to protect social values and mete out justice.” The state news agency said that authorities are still searching for two men allegedly involved in the incident, which they have described as a “devilish shameless party.”

One of the men involved in the incident reportedly phoned in to an Egyptian television news program to deny that he was homosexual or that the filmed event was a gay marriage. He said the publication of the video, on YouTube, had made him afraid to appear in public.

As the prosecutor general had directed, the arrested suspects were subjected to forensic anal examinations—a procedure which the Egyptian authorities have used repeatedly in cases of alleged homosexual conduct—and which violates international standards against torture. In the past, those subjected to the examinations in Egypt said they were forced to bend over while a government doctor working for the police massaged their buttocks and examined and sometimes probed their anus.

“Findings” from such examinations have been used in court, though experts have dismissed them as medically and scientifically useless in determining whether consensual anal sex has taken place. Hisham Abdel Hamid, a spokesman for the Health Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority, announced on September 8 that, based on results of the forensic anal exams, the men were “not homosexuals.”

Egypt does not explicitly criminalize same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults, but same-sex marriage is not legal, and authorities have routinely arrested people suspected of engaging in consensual homosexual conduct on charges of “debauchery.”  In October 2013, prosecutors ordered 14 suspects detained and subjected to anal examinations for engaging in homosexual conduct at a medical center in Cairo. In April, four men were convicted of “debauchery” and sentenced to up to eight years in prison after holding parties where authorities found makeup and women’s clothing and which allegedly involved consensual homosexual conduct.

The largest such case in recent Egyptian history, known as the Queen Boat Trials, occurred in 2001with thearrests of more than 50 men allegedly involved in a party at a discotheque on a cruise vessel moored in the Nile.

Egyptian authorities have also sexually assaulted women using the excuse of similarly abusive medical examinations. In 2011, seven women were subjected to “virginity tests” by military authorities after protests in Tahrir Square. The military has never adequately investigated the assaults or held any officer accountable.

In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in the case of Toonen v. Australia that laws criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct between adults violate the rights to non discrimination and privacy. The committee monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is party. Furthermore, Egypt’s use of forensic anal examinations violates international standards against torture. The U.N. Committee Against Torture, in its 2002 review of Egypt, investigated the issue of forensic anal examinations and called on the government “to prevent all degrading treatment on the occasion of body searches.”

In the 14 months since President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military, at least 22,000 Egyptians have been arrested, many of them for expressing political dissent. One Egyptian non-governmental organization has documented over 41,000 arrests or indictments in the same period. Authorities have held many detainees without charge or trial for months, amid mounting reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.

“Egyptian authorities should immediately end the practice of arbitrarily arresting and torturing adults who are privately engaged in consensual sexual relations,” Reid said. “These latest arrests are an ominous indication that President al-Sisi’s government will show no greater respect for the rights of vulnerable groups than its predecessors.”

http://www.hrw.org/node/128907

Michael Sam: First openly gay NFL player is cut from squad

'The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy'

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player in the NFL, has failed to make the final 53-man squad for the St Louis Rams.

Sam, 24, became one of America’s only high-profile gay athletes when he came out in February to widespread acclaim, including congratulations from President Barack Obama.

The Rams’ head coach Jeff Fisher said on Saturday that Sam’s failure to make the team was “a football decision.”

He said: “He’s not about drawing about attention to himself. He kept his head down and worked and you can’t ask anything more out of any player for that matter.”

Sam responded to the news on Twitter: “The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I’ve always known. The journey continues.”

As one of 22 players that failed to make the Rams’ final roster ahead of the Saturday deadline for squad submission, Sam has become available to other NFL teams to pick up off waivers.

Having played college football as a defensive end at the University of Missouri, Sam was drafted by the Rams in May, and his celebratory kiss with boyfriend Vito Cammisano was broadcast on national television.

Although Sam’s coming out earlier this year was widely celebrated, some in the sport expressed anger and disgust. Miami Dolphins Don Jones was disciplined for tweeting “omg” and “horrible” after the kiss was aired by ESPN, US radio host Michael Brown called Sam “selfish” for declaring his homosexuality, and Mississippi State player Rufus Warren tweeted to Sam that football “is a MAN sport.”

Sam’s failure to make the NFL squad could kickstart further conversations about the homophobic culture of the National Football League

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/first-openly-gay-nfl-player-is-cut-from-squad-9701948.html
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As Kellie Maloney has experienced, when you're transgender, strangers think it's OK to ask intimate questions – it's not

For the fantastic gains that transgender people have made in human rights and social acceptance, we still have a very long way to go

Famous boxing promoter, Kellie Maloney, recently came out as transgender. She did so as a pre-emptive move, because it had become clear to her that at least two newspapers were going to out her without her permission. It’s a familiar threat that transgender people face. Last year, mixed martial arts fighter Fallon Fox was similarly forced to out herself under essentially identical conditions. Why does this happen?

The obvious answer, perhaps, is that transgender people’s lives pique people’s curiosity. More so if it is seen as newsworthy, something that invites spectacle. This almost always comes at the cost of the trans person’s right to privacy, and indeed their safety. Outing a trans person can open up that person to a number of harms from hate mail (physical and digital) and threatening phone calls, to physical threats and even violence. And, of course, this can coincide with losing friends, family, and employment. All of these are real, widespread possibilities, even in jurisdictions that have legal protections for trans people.

Discrimination

For the fantastic gains that transgender people have made in human rights and social acceptance, particularly in the last few years, we still have a very long way to go. Employment and housing discrimination is still widespread. In many American states, discriminating against someone for being transgender is still fully legal. However, outing someone who’s trans is considered harassment in many jurisdictions where discrimination based on gender identity and expression is prohibited, such as in Canada (particularly Ontario).

In a recent video interview, Maloney revealed that she felt a sense of relief about being out and, in an important sense, finally free to pursue her transition. I can relate to that experience. When you’re out, there isn’t the worry that you’ll be outed and the accompanying sense of panic that can produce (along with the many attendant potential harms).

But being out has its own costs. There’s often a bigger sense of safety to not being out, particularly for public figures.

Referring to transgender people’s past

One important issue is how to refer to a trans person’s past after a transition. I’m asked this question frequently. The short answer is that it depends on the preferences of the person in question: how do they want people to refer to their past? For some, they’re fine with people using their previous pronouns and even name (if they’ve changed their name as part of their transition). But many prefer their past to be referred to with their current name and pronouns. For example, if this is Maloney’s preference, people should only refer to her pre-transition past as “Kellie” and “she/her/hers.”

In general, the safest rule-of-thumb is to assume that the person wants their past referred to only with their current name and pronouns. Mistakenly referring to someone’s past using previous names or pronouns can be deeply hurtful, because it implicitly invalidates their identity. People who haven’t had to battle this often have a difficult time appreciating just how hurtful it can be.

Transgender people aren’t open books

Another frequent question I get involves what one can ask a trans person. For example, it’s common for people’s curiosity to get the best of them, and they’ll ask deeply personal questions. Perhaps the most common inappropriate question is whether a trans person will get or has had “the” surgery. I’ve written before about the barriers that trans people often face in seeking important healthcare. What’s important here is that not all trans people seek the same forms of treatment and that what treatment they do seek is deeply private information that should be left between them and their medical team and perhaps their closest family and friends.

I’m often amazed that, for example, otherwise polite people, who would nearly never walk up to an acquaintance or complete stranger and ask if they’ve had an abortion (or some other similarly private, personal medical information), will blithely ask a trans person whether they’re planning to have genital surgery. Curiosity isn’t a justification for this. If a trans person wants to initiate and to open up that conversation with you, then fine, but don’t think that it’s okay to ask these sorts of personal, private questions – it isn’t.

Since the visibility of trans people is a relatively new phenomenon, it’s understandable that people are intrigued by trans people’s experiences. People are often confronting a trans person for the first time (that they know about at least – they may well have already encountered a trans person and had no idea). People are curious. But unfortunately, this often translates into a trans person being seen as a living library on all things transgender. Trans people often face a barrage of questions: When did you know? Will you change your hair? Do you want me to take you shopping? How did your family react? How did your colleagues respond? Do you still like men/women? What’s involved with a transition?

These are all reasonable questions, in the right context. But those contexts usually involve more intimate conversations between friends and where the trans person has made it clear that they’re open to talk about such things. These questions are generally completely inappropriate between acquaintances and especially strangers.

Think to yourself whether you’d feel comfortable being asked parallel questions about your own life. I suspect that most of us would rather not face such questions, often day-in and day-out, as trans people do.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/as-kellie-maloney-has-experienced-when-youre-transgender-strangers-think-its-ok-to-ask-intimate-questions--its-not-9681722.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Christian singer Vicky Beeching: 'I knew I was gay when I was 13'

A huge star on the American evangelical Christian scene, Vicky Beeching found the stress of being gay in a very conservative community almost intolerable and became seriously ill. Having come out, she wants to spread the message that you don't have to choose between your faith and your sexuality. Here she tells how she reached breaking point

Why Vicky Beeching coming out matters

Long admired by conservative evangelicals, Beeching can hopefully bring about an acceptance of homosexuality among 

The singer and songwriter Vicky Beeching, who has come out as gay, ‘has been a star of the Bible belt and a mainstay of the British evangelical scene’

The silence was awkward for him and beautiful for me. It happened at a conference last year run by a group from Holy Trinity Brompton, an influential evangelical Anglican church that counts the Archbishop of Canterbury among its supporters. And yet, surely knowing that the audience weren’t exactly Westboro Baptists, the speaker expected us to be noisily complicit with his rabid homophobia.

The preacher spoke of the “darkness” in our nation and with incredulity gave as an example the fact that schools in Northern Ireland teach that homosexuality is acceptable. “Are they doing that here?” he inquired of the hundreds assembled. But the assembly, hitherto effusive with their applause and amens, made no sound. The preacher was peeved and as silent second followed silent second, facetiously asked: “Shall we hold hands and contact the living?”

This moment seemed significant. The evangelical wing of the Church of England was standing up to homophobia. But it was doing so by sitting down and saying nothing.

This is part of the complex backdrop against which last week a woman named Vicky Beeching came out as gay. In 2014, this shouldn’t be a story. But since it may lead to change in Britain’s constitution and save lives, everyone should pay attention.

With 45,000 Twitter followers and a regular slot on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, Beeching is arguably the most influential Christian of her generation. She is, among other things, a singer and songwriter, and has long been admired by conservative evangelicals on both sides of the Atlantic. She has been a star of the Bible belt and a mainstay of the British evangelical scene, from where she hails.

A perception remains that the C of E’s only relevant contribution to national life is as an organiser of village fetes and purveyor of cake. But it also has a confident and thriving evangelical wing. This often does good in the areas it serves but is part of the barrier to gay people who want to marry in their local Anglican church. Opinions within it vary widely and many evangelicals abhor homophobia. But two truths apply almost invariably to its churches: that they are members of the Evangelical Alliance, which appears equivocal on whether homosexuality is inherently sinful, and that they view Beeching as one of their own. Since knowing a gay person often changes people’s minds on the issue, there can be hope that Beeching coming out can help shift the centre of gravity and end an institutional and constitutional injustice.

But this issue extends beyond the C of E. Beeching’s experience of homophobia among Christians has left her literally scarred: her forehead is marked by a disease resulting from her turmoil. Some have fared even worse – a young gay American killed himself following an alleged “exorcism”, while concerns have been expressed about the effect of homophobic preaching on others who have taken their lives.

Today in Britain, the US and elsewhere, gay young people are being told by men and women in whom they place their trust that their feelings result from demonic possession and can be prayed away. Beeching tells of being “exorcised” at a festival for young Christians. I know gay Christians who speak of similarly scarring experiences. Emotional and spiritual abuse has been and is being perpetrated against gay young people. It must stop.

Church leaders understandably don’t want to appear obsessed with sex but this is a matter of life and death. Festivals for young Christians, such as Soul Survivor, must be explicit about their acceptance of homosexuality, and the wider church’s words on the issue must be matched with actions. The campaign against homophobic bullying in C of E schools is welcome, but when the church itself fails to treat gay relationships as equal to heterosexual relationships, its message is undermined.

Three years ago, the Christian activist Symon Hill embarked on a pilgrimage of repentance for his former homophobia. It’s now time for the church as a whole to follow in his footsteps. As a means of opposing injustice, sitting down and saying nothing may be polite but it’s not what Jesus did, and it’s not what Beeching’s story demands.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/18/vicky-beeching-coming-out-matters-christians

Lesbian women are 'significantly more likely' to orgasm than straight or bisexual females

Women also have 'less predictable' and more varied orgasms than men

Lesbian women are much more likely to orgasm during sexual activity than either straight or bisexual females, a new study has revealed.

Women also have less predictable and more varied orgasms than men, research looking at orgasm variation by a team at the Kinsley Institute has found.

Their study discovered that for women - but not men - how likely they are to orgasm varied depending on their sexual orientation, with bi-sexual women being the least likely to experience orgasms.

Researchers used an internet questionnaire to collect data from a total of 6,151 single men and women between the ages of 21 and 65 in the US.

The participants were asked about their gender, sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay/lesbian, bisexual), and what percentage of the time they reached orgasm during sex with a familiar partner.

The results from the survey revealed that, on average, men orgasm during sex with a familiar partner 85 per cent of the time, compared with 63 per cent of the time for women. However, lesbian women had a much higher probability of orgasm (75 per cent) than either heterosexual women, at 62 per cent, or bisexual women, at 58 per cent.

The same variation was not found in men.

Researchers suggested this variation could be due to lesbian women being more comfortable and familiar with the female body, Metro reports. 

“Findings from this large dataset of US singles suggest that women, regardless of sexual orientation, have less predictable, more varied orgasm experiences than do men and that for women, but not men, the likelihood of orgasm varies with sexual orientation.

“These findings demonstrate the need for further investigations into the comparative sexual experiences and sexual health outcomes of sexual minorities.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/lesbian-women-are-significantly-more-likely-to-orgasm-than-straight-or-bisexual-females-9678597.html

'My uncles are gay and we had to go to New Zealand to have their wedding': Girl, eight, writes to Tony Abbott asking for marriage law to be changed

• Eight year old writes to Prime Minister Tony Abbott to ask him to change gay marriage laws so her uncles can get married.
• 'I will write to you once a day for a week' Abbey tells Prime Minister
• Melbourne Couple Gregory Storer and Michael Barnett will star in a TV series to highlight marriage equality.
• 'I was gobsmacked'. Uncle's comments on his niece's letters to Mr Abbott.
• Letters receive plenty of support and praise on social media.

An eight year old girl called Abbey is now the latest of young people to advocate for gay marriage.

The girl, who is the niece of a Melbourne gay couple, has written several letters to Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a bid to get him to change his mind about marriage equality so her uncles can marry.

Couple Michael Barnett and Gregory Storer will star in a TV series, which sees them live for a week with conservative Anglican priest called David who is anti gay marriage.

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Michael Barnett (left) and Gregory Storer (right) are praising their niece Abbey who wrote letters to Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking him to change the law for gay marriage.

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Letter from eight year Abbey asking Tony Abbott to change gay marriage laws

When Abbey found out her uncles were going to appear in the upcoming SBS special : Living with the Enemy :Same Sex Marriage, she felt compelled to write to the Prime Minister, asking him to change the law and legalise marriage equality.

In one of her letters she wrote, 'I will write to you once a day for a week. P.S. I would like the law changed.

 

Mr Storer said he was surprised and gobsmacked that Abbey, his sister's daughter, had decided to write the  letters. 

'It was completely unprompted by us. After the wedding she wanted to know how to make it happen (changing  the marriage equality laws). In her own way she understands.' 

Mr Storer said, 'she was disappointed it might take a while to get back a response from the Prime Minister. But we'll wait for about a month or so to get a response and then look at other avenues, maybe even sending a letter to the Queen.'

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Gregory Storer (left) and Michael Barnett (right) go in for a kiss at a rally to support gay marriage.

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Abbey wrote several letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott asking him to change the laws so gay people (including her uncles) could get married legally in Australia.

He said ti was becoming more and more common for young people to stand up for gay rights. 

'I think what's interesting is Abbey's motivation. It was just something she thought of herself , shows she understands the importance of treating people the same and equal, really heartwarming.' 

Mr Storer blogged his delight at the letters calling his niece 'awesome', which sparked a lot of supportive comments.

'That is so beautiful, everyone seems to get it but that lot in Canberra.' wrote one follower.

Another wrote 'Well done Abbey, you are a powerful young lady. I have a son who would like to marry one day and I hope that both my son and uncle will be able to do it. Welcome to the rainbow families.'

Another follower also said 'Children just get it, they have not been influenced by prejudice and discrimination. This gives such hope for the future.'

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Michael Barnett and Gregory Storer recently went to a Equal Love Rally to support gay marriage.

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Equal Love Rally : Melbourne couple Michael Barnett and Gregory Storer went this weekend to support gay marriage.

Michael and Gregory who have been together for six years, just got married in New Zealand in January.

The couple were recently at the Equal Love Rally this weekend to support the gay marriage movement and Mr Storer says their decision to be part of a TV series was because he and Michael are very passionate about the cause. 

'It was a fantastic opportunity to make it known, the world isn't going to end if gay people get married.

'It was intense (living with a priest) and a few sparks flew. A rollercoaster ride for 10 days together. It didn't change opinions but we got a different perspective.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2727771/Eight-year-old-writes-letters-Tony-Abbott-asking-uncles-married.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline

https://uk.screen.yahoo.com/barcroft-media-videos/transgender-dad-becoming-woman-cost-100000929.htm

Vicky Beeching, Christian rock star 'I'm gay. God loves me just the way I am'

Beeching's God-fearing lyrics are sung by millions in America's Bible Belt. Here, the singer and religious commentator discusses her sexuality for the first time and reflects on the political ramifications of coming out as a lesbian

There is no quicker, more effective way to destroy someone than to isolate them. Guards at Guantanamo Bay know this. Psychiatrists know this. Vicky Beeching, 35, British star of the American Christian rock scene, one of the most successful artists in US mega-churches and now one of the most sought-after religious commentators in Britain, knows this too.

There is also no better way to destroy a group of people than to ensure they do the job for you. And so, as Beeching's story pours out on a hot afternoon – a story of psychological torture, life-threatening illness and unimaginable loneliness, imposed all around from a supposedly Godly environment – one question fills the air: if shrinks, brutes and fascists know how best to devastate a person, does the Church of England? Or do they know not what they do?

We meet twice. On the first occasion, Beeching, normally enlivening Radio 4's Thought for the Day or any number of Sunday morning TV discussion programmes, sits opposite me in a café in Soho. She pushes a piece of paper in my direction. It is a précis she has written of her background: of growing up in a conservative Christian household in Kent, first in the Pentecostal Church then in the evangelical branch of the Church of England, of going to Oxford to study theology, of the EMI recording contract that sent her to Nashville 12 years ago and launched a successful singer-songwriting career… and then a line that jars and jolts. I turn the piece of paper over and look up to see her smiling nervously.

"

I'm gay," she says, confirming what is written. She has never said this publicly before – a handful of people in her private life know. She has only just told one her closest friends, Katherine, and Katherine's father, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The enormity of the political ramifications of this disclosure scarcely have a second to sink in – a theologian who spends holy days with the Archbishop, whose God-fearing lyrics are sung by millions in America's Bible Belt, coming out as a lesbian – before I begin to reflect on the implications for her personally.

She will be liberated. She may well, through her commentating work, become a key figure in the liberalisation of Anglicanism. And she will be crucified. Boycotts of her music are already in place since Beeching decided to speak up for same-sex marriage over a year ago. Hatred has been flung at her online ever since: "You've been deceived by the devil," is a typical, charming comment.

Then, as we begin to talk over these implications, she slides her fringe to one side to reveal a wide, white scar running down the length of her forehead. It is also concealed by make-up. Beeching knows how to cover things up. A week later, she arrives at my flat in east London to tell the story of the scar. It is the story of her life.

As a little girl, Vicky Beeching soon became aware of the attitudes towards homosexuality surrounding her. She learnt of them in Sunday school. "It was in children's picture books about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – hailstones of fire raining down on these cities known for the 'abomination' of homosexuality. It was viewed as a terrible evil, the cause of the floods. I don't think that my parents brought it up – it was just a given."

At 12, her feelings towards other girls at school began to deepen. "Realising that I was attracted to them was a horrible feeling," she says, looking down. "I was so embarrassed and ashamed. It became more and more of a struggle because I couldn't tell anyone." As adolescence emerged, with school and Church services several times a week, alienation set in.

"I increasingly began to feel like I was living behind an invisible wall. The inner secrecy of holding that inside was divorcing me from reality – I was living in my own head. Anybody I was in a friendship with, or anything I was doing in the church, was accompanied by an internal mantra: 'What if they knew?' It felt like all of my relationships were built on this ice that would break if I stepped out on to it."

Beeching is cross-legged on a sofa in my living-room, deportment impeccable, done up in a tailored jacket, made up with absolute precision. Her face has a divine, ethereal, bone- structure-to-die-for beauty, like Sharon Stone suppressing her basic instincts. All of this, however, looks different, harrowed, when Beeching describes the attempts to cure her lesbianism. She went to a Catholic priest at 13: a confession to absolve the innate.

"When I said that I had feelings for the same sex he prayed the prayer of absolution, for me to be forgiven. And that was it." Afterwards, her feelings remained, which "only increased the sense of shame. I felt there was something really wrong with me, that maybe I was so sinful and awful I couldn't be healed."

She reached her first breaking point that year. One night alone in her bedroom, still just 13 years old, the schism between feelings and beliefs overcame her.

"I felt like it was ripping me in half. I knew I couldn't carry on. I was trying to align the loving God I knew and believed in with this horrendous reality of what was going on inside me," she says. "I remember kneeling down and absolutely sobbing into the carpet. I said to God, 'You have to either take my life or take this attraction away because I cannot do both.'" Her eyes glisten for the first time.

By 16, the isolation, fear and shame were escalating. Her mother, who is very musical, had taught her to play the piano and guitar, and Beeching was already writing worship songs and performing them at services in front of hundreds. "It was my one outlet." Her first song, called "Search Me O God", contains, tellingly, the line: "Find any way in me that does not reflect Your purity."

That summer, at a Christian youth camp in the English countryside, Beeching became subject to an altogether more extreme way to make her sexuality "pure": an exorcism.

I ask her to name which camp it was, which organisation was responsible.

"Do I have to say?" she asks, with a half grimace. "It might make them look bad."

"Yes, it will," I say.

"This happens at a lot of them. It feels a bit mean to pick one," she replies, chiming with an earlier comment: "I'm not angry with the Church."

Instead, she takes herself back to that day. "I remember sitting in my seat at this big conference, with about 4,000 people. Someone had preached about how God could set you free from anything, and I was desperate, I thought, 'I have to deal with this, it's breaking me.' They invited us to the front." The shy teenager got up.

"The walk felt like 10 years. The music was very loud. At the altar one of the prayer team said, 'What would you like us to pray for you about?' I said, 'It's really hard for me to say this but I am attracted to people of the same sex and I've been told God hates that and I'm so ashamed and I need Him to take it away because I can't keep living like this. I'm so sad and depressed, I can't carry on.'"

Beeching stood with her arms outstretched as the leaders brought in extra people to perform the deliverance. "I remember lots of people placing their hands on my shoulders and back and front, praying in tongues really loudly and then shouting things: 'We command Satan to let you go! Cast these devils out of you! We speak to you demon of homosexuality: let her go!' People around me were wailing and screaming. It was really frightening. I was already feeling so vulnerable, it was horrible to think, 'Am I controlled by demons?'"

How did it feel? "Degrading," she says. "Very humiliating – it made me so embarrassed."

And when this too didn't change her orientation, Beeching turned inwards. "I began to disconnect."

Vicky Beeching’s story can inspire many conflicted young people (Jason Alden/The Independent)
She spent as much time on her own as possible, pushing friends away at school, filling break times by working in the library alone. "It was too painful to be around people that didn't understand." She became a workaholic.

"I felt like there was something so wrong with me, according to the Church, that maybe I could make up for it by getting good grades." On several occasions, Beeching tried to force an attraction to boys, by letting those who asked her out walk her to school, but she felt nothing. Instead, all her energy went in to work: the grades took her to Oxford (where she lived in a Christian halls of residence); at 23, the songwriting took her to Nashville.

For the next six years, Beeching lived in the fire-and-brimstone heart of conservative America, recording albums and touring the country's vast churches. To avoid the desolation of her personal life, Beeching would perform endlessly, ensuring every birthday and public holiday was booked up.

Countless unrequited loves for straight female friends compounded the torment of her teenage years. "That was one of the hardest parts – to have your heart crushed so many times you wonder whether it actually has any life left in it," she says, quietly. "It's incredibly painful. I just wanted a soul mate.

By 2008, aged 29, she decided to move to California, hoping that San Diego would provide a more liberal setting. But this was the year that Proposition 8 – the state law to ban same-sex marriage – was to be voted on. The Christian lobby galvanized. And Beeching was being booked to perform at mega-churches throughout California.

"I would find myself at these events that were anti-equal-marriage rallies, but I was only booked to sing so there was no way I could say anything. If I had, I would have got kicked out." It didn't help that her contract with the Christian music branch of EMI had a "morality clause", in which "any behaviour deemed to be immoral" would be a breach of contract.

The secrecy, the loneliness, the unerring work at churches hell-bent on attacking her own, erupted the following year. Her body started attacking itself.

"I was blow-drying my hair and looked in the mirror and noticed this white line down my forehead." The scar grew and became "really noticeable – inflamed and red". The day she handed in the master tapes for what was to be her last album, she went to the doctor's, expecting to be handed some E45 cream.

"They said, 'You need to sit down. This is really serious. It's an auto-immune disease called linear scleroderma morphea, and a form of the disease called coup de sabre.' It's a degenerative condition where soft tissue turns to scarring. At that point they didn't know if it was just localised or whether it would affect my whole body." In the worst cases, one's whole body can turn to scar tissue, including internal organs. It can cause epilepsy, blackouts, and can kill.

Beeching was told she would need extensive chemotherapy and to expect hair loss, weight gain and exhaustion. She went home to her apartment where she lived alone, and looked up pictures online of sufferers, many of whom lose parts of their face.

"I vomited," she says. She flew home as soon as she could. "The doctor here said, 'In our experience there will always be one thing you can name that is a point of stress, of deep trauma in your life, that triggers this.' For me there was no question: it was the stress of my sexuality." In hospital a few weeks later, Beeching made a vow.

"I looked at my arm with the chemotherapy needle poking out, I looked at my life, and thought, 'I have to come to terms with who I am.'" She gave herself a goal: to come out by the time she was 35.

"Thirty-five is half a life," she says, sadly. "I can't lose the other half. I've lost so much living as a shadow of a person."

Beeching had 18 months of gruelling chemotherapy. The exhaustion was so acute that she was forced not to work, and instead, to think, to feel, to gradually accept her sexuality. She has never had a relationship. She didn't meet an out gay person until she was 30. In recovery, Beeching went to visit Ruth Hunt, chief executive of Stonewall, who put her in touch with some out lesbians: the BBC newsreader Jane Hill, sports presenter Clare Balding and her wife, Alice Arnold, the former Radio 4 newsreader. "They said, 'Be yourself and everything will follow.'"

One hopes it is that simple. Before we meet, I hear Beeching is being lined up to be one of the new presenters on Songs of Praise. She refuses to comment either way, instead replying simply that it would be a "dream job".

At Easter this year, she came out to her parents. "I was terrified but they reacted really well. They said, 'We're so sorry that you had to go through this alone.'"

Beeching and her parents have agreed to disagree on the theology around homosexuality. "It's a picture of what is possible, even when you don't agree, that love can supersede everything." She hopes the Church of England can one day follow suit.

"What Jesus taught was a radical message of welcome and inclusion and love. I feel certain God loves me just the way I am, and I have a huge sense of calling to communicate that to young people. When I think of myself at 13, sobbing into that carpet, I just want to help anyone in that situation to not have to go through what I did, to show that instead, you can be yourself – a person of integrity."

After what Beeching has suffered, why not discard the faith that considers her sinful and wrong?

"It is heartbreaking," she says, her eyes glimmering again. "The Church's teaching was the reason that I lived in so much shame and isolation and pain for all those years. But rather than abandon it and say it's broken, I want to be part of the change."

As Beeching jumps into a waiting taxi, I think of all the young gay Christians who have spoken out over the years, who've told of their loneliness, their depression, the "cures" they sought, the suicides they attempted, and all who might hear Beeching's story and feel less alone, and I whisper under my breath, for them, two words: thank you.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/vicky-beeching-star-of-the-christian-rock-scene-im-gay-god-loves-me-just-the-way-i-am-9667566.html