Scottish gay marriage consultation closes today

The Scottish Government consultation looking into the details of its Bill to redefine marriage closes today.

Respond here.

Members of the public have until 5pm today to respond to questions on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill.

Campaign

Campaign group Scotland for Marriage has launched a web page to help people answer the consultation questions.

It can be used to respond to the most important aspects of the consultation.

These include issues of religious same-sex weddings, freedom of speech and education.

Disagree

Recently a police chaplain in Scotland who voiced support for traditional marriage on his personal blog was removed from his post.

Strathclyde Police said Revd Brian Ross was able to hold his beliefs in private, but that to publicly express them was a breach of their equality and diversity policy.

And a secondary school teacher from Scotland said he was pressurised to promote gay marriage against his will and it contributed to a nervous breakdown.

Conscience

The teacher, referred to as “Mr X”, was prepared to teach about marriage and sexuality in a balanced and objective way, but could not in all conscience say gay marriage was the same as straight marriage.

But the head of department was angered by Mr X’s stance, and the head teacher said Mr X must toe the line and keep his views to himself. Mr X said this contributed to “a breakdown and being signed off work for several months with stress”.

The consultation opened in December.