British MPs clash on gay marriage

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 26 May 2013.

According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, British Tory politicians fundamentally disagree on whether same sex marriage should be legalised.

Lesbian Tory MP Margot James views gay marriage as a remedy for unjust discrimination in the 1980s, while former Defence Minister Sir Gerald Howarth warned that the ethical “playing field has not been levelled” and that there were “plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who see this as but a stepping stone to something even further.”

An amendment to allow registrars to opt out of conducting same sex marriage ceremonies was defeated by a majority of 190, and an amendment to protect religious beliefs with respect to marriage was defeated by a majority of 201.

Conservative MP Edward Leigh spoke for many when he said that “if you dare to disagree with the new orthodoxy that gay marriage is the best thing since sliced bread, you are somehow breaking a new social taboo.”

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.