Pastor Sylvia Hayward-Harris yesterday criticised those who use religious arguments to deny human rights.Speaking at a public forum on the issue of Human Rights and Sexual Orientation, she said: “There’s something seriously wrong when we discriminate against someone who is another human being.“I’m here as a believer in Jesus and what he had to say about love and justice. He spoke a lot about what is right for us and he didn’t say anything about homosexuality.“The people who are the most vocal are people who have been discriminated against, and that really disturbs me.”Her comments come after the head of the New Testament Church of God, Bishop Lloyd Duncan said he was categorically against legislation that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.Responding during the public forum at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute yesterday an event organised by the Centre of Justice Ms Hayward-Harris said she believes in the separation of church and state.“I don’t believe that religion and politics should mix,” she said. “I believe that because I’m a Christian doesn’t mean I have the right to dictate over anyone else’s life.“It’s wrong for the Government, the legislators, to be the weapon of any religion in the community.”She refuted claims that the Bible speaks out against homosexuality, arguing that some religious leaders have taken lines out of context or misrepresented their meaning.“I can remember several different incidents in which leaders of religion have misled what the Bible has said. I believe in this case, it’s being misrepresented.”Giving one example, she said that the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah had nothing to do with homosexuality, listing Bible verses that she said explain the story.In other cases, she said religious leaders were cherry picking lines from the Book of Leviticus and taking them out of context.She encouraged the audience to contact her if they have questions about any of the scripture.Another panellist, Chen Foley, discussed the legislative elements of the Human Rights issue.He noted that, under the existing Human Rights Act, landlords can still discriminate based on any factor, including race, provided that the landlord also live on the property and there are fewer than three units.And while he praised UK Human Rights legislation, which does not include such segregation, he said passing a Bermudianised version of the UK legislation would take far too long.“We need to legislate now and the best way to do that is the Human Rights Act. We should have passed this law a while ago,” he said.While one member of the public said that the legislation should be amended to simply cover all people rather than segmentalise the population, Mr Foley said that would not be a possibility as legislation must be specific.And before new legislation is passed, he said consultation and communication must take place so that the community can have their say.Several members of the audience also joined the call for human rights legislation. One audience member described having a waitress refuse him service in a Hamilton restaurant because she believed he was homosexual.While he said that homosexuality is not a choice, he noted that both marital status and religion are — and are still protected by Bermuda’s Human Rights Legislation.