I write as a gay Christian about the tightrope between freedom of speech and religion and prejudice and discrimination.

One of the fundamental principles of Liberalism is to allow people to do as they wish provided it does not harm other people. When it comes to religion, what appears to be a simple enough principle becomes complicated.

Many religions, including Christianity, require its followers to proclaim “the good news” of their particular religion to non-believers. There are interpretations of many religions that say intimacy between same sex couples is wrong, indeed that any sex outside of a marriage between a man and a woman is sinful. The question then becomes, does proclaiming such ideas contravene the Liberal harm principle?

There are people who think religion is at least, mumbo jumbo, and at worst, damaging and divisive, and that whatever God, his Son or his prophets may or may not have said, it’s all nonsense, in which case, no harm done.

There are others who do have a faith, who are from sexually and gender diverse groups or who love those from such groups (family members, friends, allies), for whom it really matters what their religion says on these issues and who are seriously harmed by such declarations.

There is a third group who, whatever their faith or none, use religious declarations to sustain, fuel, and incite their dislike or hatred of sexually and gender diverse people.

Even worse is when a leader of a political party, or a former leader, who represents the most accepting political party in terms of people’s religion, belief or humanism, proclaims his minority religious beliefs over everyone else’s. It is the job of a political party leader, and other senior members of the party, to unite members who have disparate views and galvanise them behind those common principles for which our party stands, despite our differences.

Personally, I am with the increasing proportion of Christians who believe that what the Old Testament says about homosexuality needs to be put into its historical context – sound reasons at the time that are not relevant today. For those who believe the Bible should be taken literally and is timeless, you have bigger issues, faced with present day scientific fact, than your attitude towards same sex relationships.

As far as Tim Farron is concerned, the damage has been done and we cannot get the genie back in the bottle. We have to reassure sexually and gender diverse people, those people of faith and of none that the Liberal Democrats remain the most accepting of all the political parties, whoever you are and whatever you believe, including you Tim. Liberal and Liberal Democrat Christians have been at the forefront of campaigns for liberty, fairness and justice and have been steadfast in their support of such causes, no matter how unpopular. Those who continue that proud tradition are an asset of which our party is, quite rightly, proud.

* Brian Paddick Is Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Home Affairs. He was Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service until 2007, the Lib Dem candidate for the London mayoral election in 2008 and 2012, and a life peer since 2013. He is joint President of LGBT+ Lib Dems.