Latest news from the Coalition for Marriage
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UPDATE ON THE BILL IN THE LORDS |
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I thought you would appreciate an update on what has been happening with the same-sex marriage Bill in the House of Lords. There has been lots going on.The Bill has now completed its Committee Stage. As is usual, there have been no votes during Committee Stage. The Bill now moves to Report Stage, scheduled to take place on 8 and 10 July, when we expect there will be votes on key amendments.During Committee Stage, many Peers have been pressing for a long list of protections for people who believe in traditional marriage, including:
- Protecting people at work from being disciplined just because they voice support for traditional marriage.
- Stopping local authorities using the Public Sector Equality Duty to ban a church from hiring public facilities just because the church disagrees with same-sex marriage.
- Protecting foster carers from being blacklisted by social workers just because they believe marriage is the union of a man and woman.
- Giving couples the option of marrying according to the real definition of marriage, rather than being forced to marry according to the new genderless definition.
- Protecting the right of teachers to express support for traditional marriage without risking their careers.
- Making clear that freedom of speech about marriage should not be restricted by equality laws.
There have been some passionate and excellent speeches from Peers who support these protections, including from a number of the country’s top legal experts. A former Lord Chancellor and two former senior judges lent their voices to the call for civil liberty safeguards.The Government has promised to change the criminal law so that criticism of same-sex marriage won’t be, of itself, a hate-crime. We welcome that reassurance, but our primary concern lies with civil, not criminal, law. For example, employment law and discrimination law – where the problems are most likely to arise – are part of civil law. Here, the Government has stubbornly refused to give an inch on safeguarding the freedom of people who believe in traditional marriage.They even went as far as saying people who work in the private sector – let alone public sector – should be fired if they refuse to provide services for a same-sex wedding. As far as the Government is concerned, there should be no liberty of conscience in those circumstances.That shows what we’re up against, but we have no intention of backing down. We will be working hard to call for safeguards for people – like you – who support traditional marriage.This is important work, but we haven’t stopped defending the principle of real marriage. We always said the Government would tie itself in knots trying to redefine marriage, and here is just one example: in the official Explanatory Notes which accompany the Bill, the Government says:The terms “husband” and “wife” here refer to a person who is married for the purposes of paragraph 1(2)(c) of Schedule 3. This means that “husband” here will include a man or a woman in a same sex marriage, as well as a man married to a woman. In a similar way, “wife” will include a woman married to another woman or a man married to a man. The result is that this section is to be construed as including both male and female same sex marriage. (Read it for yourself, see p29) |
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The House of Lords is currently considering the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. There is an urgent need for civil liberty protections for people who disagree with same-sex marriage. But the Government has so far been ignoring this need. Please write to the Prime Minister about this.
The Prime Minister does not release his email address, so you must write him a letter. Please tell him “The Bill is still going through Parliament, and changes can still be made.”
Please write to:
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Using your own words, please:
- Urge him to intervene so that the Coalition Government does more to protect people who believe in traditional marriage.
- If this issue will affect your vote at the next election, please say so.
- Say you are concerned that there will be more cases like that of Adrian Smith, the housing manager who was demoted and lost 40% of his salary just because he thought gay weddings in churches would be “an equality too far”.
- Say the Bill needs to make clear that people who believe in traditional marriage should not be penalised at work.
Some tips for what to say (please use your own words):
- The Government says the law will protect people from being penalised at work just because they disagree with same-sex marriage. If that’s the case, why not say so explicitly in the Bill?
- The Equality Act and the Human Rights Act didn’t stop Adrian Smith getting demoted and losing 40% of his pay just for saying on his own personal Facebook page that gay weddings in churches would be “an equality too far”.
- It took two years and cost £30,000 – paid for by a charity – for Adrian Smith to win his case at the High Court, and even then he didn’t get his job back. People shouldn’t have to be put through the mill like that.
- Adrian Smith was told by two separate lawyers that he would not win his case under employment law, that’s why he had to use contract law. Clearly, there needs to be more protection for people like Adrian.
- A specific protection written into the Bill itself would give people much-needed reassurance, and send a signal that people who believe in traditional marriage are worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Latest news from the Coalition for Marriage
Latest news from the Coalition for Marriage
There have been some passionate and excellent speeches from Peers who support these protections, including from a number of the country’s top legal experts. A former Lord Chancellor and two former senior judges lent their voices to the call for civil liberty safeguards.The Government has promised to change the criminal law so that criticism of same-sex marriage won’t be, of itself, a hate-crime. We welcome that reassurance, but our primary concern lies with civil, not criminal, law. For example, employment law and discrimination law – where the problems are most likely to arise – are part of civil law. Here, the Government has stubbornly refused to give an inch on safeguarding the freedom of people who believe in traditional marriage.They even went as far as saying people who work in the private sector – let alone public sector – should be fired if they refuse to provide services for a same-sex wedding. As far as the Government is concerned, there should be no liberty of conscience in those circumstances.That shows what we’re up against, but we have no intention of backing down. We will be working hard to call for safeguards for people – like you – who support traditional marriage.This is important work, but we haven’t stopped defending the principle of real marriage. We always said the Government would tie itself in knots trying to redefine marriage, and here is just one example: in the official Explanatory Notes which accompany the Bill, the Government says:The terms “husband” and “wife” here refer to a person who is married for the purposes of paragraph 1(2)(c) of Schedule 3. This means that “husband” here will include a man or a woman in a same sex marriage, as well as a man married to a woman. In a similar way, “wife” will include a woman married to another woman or a man married to a man. The result is that this section is to be construed as including both male and female same sex marriage. (Read it for yourself, see p29)
The House of Lords is currently considering the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. There is an urgent need for civil liberty protections for people who disagree with same-sex marriage. But the Government has so far been ignoring this need. Please write to the Prime Minister about this.
The Prime Minister does not release his email address, so you must write him a letter. Please tell him “The Bill is still going through Parliament, and changes can still be made.”
Please write to:
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
Using your own words, please:
Some tips for what to say (please use your own words):