The row between the Gay Police Association and the Christian Police Association has been simmerin... Gay and Christian police i
The ad featured a Bible next to a pool of blood under the heading "in the name of the father", and claimed that religion was the sole or primary motivation behind most of the homophobic incidents logged by the GPA's staff helpline.
But far from backing down, members of the GPA say their colleagues in the Christian Police Association are themselves guilty of breaking police equal opportunities rules which outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexuality.
The GPA's national coordinator Vic Codling told BBC News they are in dispute with the CPA after a gay, Christian police officer was refused membership of the CPA unless he agreed to become celibate.
"Black or female police officers wouldn't be asked to be "less black" or "less female" in order to join staff associations, so why should gay or lesbian officers?" said Mr Codling.
When the GPA complained about the case of the gay officer, the CPA sent them their "position paper" on homosexuality which is based on a report by the Evangelical Alliance.
The CPA's Executive Director Don Axcell, told BBC News that his organisation was trying to be conciliatory, but the GPA were being uncooperative.
"They published a vitriolic article in Police Review magazine about faith-based homophobia. We've been trying to work through conciliation, but we keep coming up against conflict."
"Fourteen cases is miniscule if you consider the thousands of police officers in Britain. And what's considered to be homophobia is in the mind of the complainant."
Mr Axcell denies that his members are homophobic. And he pointes out that although some CPA branches do some of their work on police time, the GPA he says, receives thousands of pounds of funding from the government.
The case concerning the Met officer was due to be discussed on Friday, with the Police Federation's chairman Jan Berry acting as mediator, but the meeting was cancelled because of a planned rail strike.
"Some homophobes look around for excuses and see the CPA's position and it gives them support. But many of them don't have a practising religious background themselves."
Mr Codling thinks that some of the problem lies with senior officers either being practising Christians, or members of the CPA itself, which Mr Codling says raises questions about how willing they are to confront work-based prejudice.
"The police wouldn't accommodate the discriminatory values of the BNP, so why are they accommodating the values of the CPA, simply because they're based on faith?"
This is cache, read story here