{"id":3938,"date":"2013-07-13T10:55:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T09:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=3938"},"modified":"2013-07-13T10:55:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T09:55:29","slug":"latest-news-from-the-coalition-for-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stbedesclaytongreen.co.uk\/?p=3938","title":{"rendered":"Latest news from the Coalition for Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Latest news from the\u00a0Coalition\u00a0for Marriage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nUPDATE ON THE BILL IN THE LORDS<\/b><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nI 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\u00a08 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:<\/p>\n
    \n
  • Protecting\u00a0people at work<\/b>\u00a0from being disciplined just because they voice support for traditional marriage.<\/li>\n
  • Stopping local authorities using the Public Sector Equality Duty to ban a\u00a0church<\/b>\u00a0from hiring public facilities just because the church disagrees with same-sex marriage.<\/li>\n
  • Protecting\u00a0foster carers<\/b>\u00a0from being blacklisted by social workers just because they believe marriage is the union of a man and woman.<\/li>\n
  • Giving\u00a0couples<\/b>\u00a0the option of marrying according to the real definition of marriage, rather than being forced to marry according to the new genderless definition.<\/li>\n
  • Protecting the right of\u00a0teachers<\/b>\u00a0to express support for traditional marriage without risking their careers.<\/li>\n
  • Making clear that\u00a0freedom of speech<\/b>\u00a0about marriage should not be restricted by equality laws.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    There have been some passionate and excellent speeches from Peers who support these protections, including from a number of the country\u2019s 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\u2019t 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 \u2013 where the problems are most likely to arise \u2013 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 \u2013 let alone public sector \u2013 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\u2019re up against, but we have no intention of backing down. We will be working hard to call for safeguards for people \u2013 like you \u2013 who support traditional marriage.This is important work, but we haven\u2019t 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 \u201chusband\u201d and \u201cwife\u201d here refer to a person who is married for the purposes of paragraph 1(2)(c) of Schedule 3. This means that \u201chusband\u201d 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, \u201cwife\u201d 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.<\/i>\u00a0(Read it for yourself<\/a>, see p29)<\/td>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Please write to:
\nThe Prime Minister
\n10 Downing Street
\nLondon
\nSW1A 2AA<\/p>\n

Using your own words, please:<\/p>\n