Homosexual lobbyists in Scotland are calling for homosexuals to be able to ‘marry’ on the same terms as heterosexual couples, including holding weddings in consenting churches.
A petition has been launched on the website of the Scottish Parliament, arguing that traditional marriage should no longer have a distinct status from same-sex unions.
The petition’s backers, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Network (LGBTN), say that even though civil partnerships are equal to marriage in legal terms, they are still “considered separate”.
Same-sex couples should also be allowed to marry in religious ceremonies, the LGBTN say.
They want an amendment to the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 “to allow two persons of the same sex to register a civil marriage and a religious marriage if the relevent religious body consents”.
Family campaigners have warned that any such change would undermine the status of marriage.
The House of Lords was told last year that while civil partnerships are allowed in the UK, the law “did not call those partnerships marriage, and that remains government policy”.
A same-sex couple who were ‘married’ under Canadian law were recently told that their union would not be recognised as marriage under UK law.
A High Court judge ruled that civil partnerships were indeed different from marriage, and that the Government, in denying gay couples the right to marry, was engaging in a legitimate attempt to protect marriage and family life.
Mike Judge of The Christian Institute said: “This is an ill-fated attempt to erode further the status of the married family by calling for full ‘gay marriage’.
“The Government and the courts have made it clear that same-sex unions are not the same as marriage, and the law should continue to reflect this fact.”