ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the strategy adopted by both the gay Christian movement and their more vociferous opponents in seeking to forcefully engage not only with each other, but to appeal to both church and secular agencies with the language of rights'. In the late 1980s, in order to enhance the debate, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) established the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality. It facilitates education and discussion of all aspects of human sexuality within the broad Christian community. While the LGCM in the UK has partaken of theological arguments to further its objectives, the mainstay of its campaigning has however focused on human rights, a platform upon which it has lobbied the secular state and the traditional Christian denominations. The response of the LGCM to such cases has been to call for an assurance of equality to suitable gay or lesbian couples seeking to adopt children, where this is in the child's best interests'.
