We should all thank the Scottish Government today for standing up for fairness and equality and against discrimination and bigotry by moving to allow marriage for all despite the squeals of anti-democratic mobs of sour-faced homophobes who care little for freedom and less for the truth.
If they bothered to read their Bibles these so-called Christians would know the prophet they claim to follow had nothing to say on same-sex relationships and that only scribes, anxious to do the bidding of their own political masters, were ordered to pad out the good book with bile.
This is also a day to remember how many Scottish churches also supported slavery “because it was mentioned in the bible”. A ghastly truth and symptom of how evangelicals can lose their way in a morass of dogma and bigotry, it is so stark that some of them are prepared to lie to hide it. True freedoms for the human race are often won despite Christian churches, not because of them.
I dread to think, if he returned today, what Jesus Christ would make of the deluded hate-mongers who so blithely – and so wickedly – claim to be the ones who are following his example in their own lives.
AKA – A gay student writes…
Almost a year ago I had to fight to defend, and justify, my rights to full equality for being born gay.
Today the last major battle for full equality, in the great nation of Scotland, was won. The only thing I will soon not be able to do is to be married in a church that does not agree in same sex marriage (realistically even if they could be forced would I want to?). With heterosexuals couples unable to marry in a church for reasons of divorce or infidelity etc I do not really see this as of any real consequence. If they don’t agree with it they should be allowed to not agree with it within their own organisation only and that right should rightly be protected.
No doubt those who oppose of the move will follow this post with negativity and derogatory comments. This will be my only post on the matter because no matter what they write, their horrible words no longer have any effect, or potential effect, on my life. Nor can their opinions change the course of events to come. I can be happy living as a equal, and they can be happy growing old with their opinions. For the first day since coming to this site I can say that they are 100% just that. Opinions. It is almost possible to describe the relief I felt today knowing it was the last day in my life I had to fight for the same rights as my brothers, sister, cousins and friends have had since they turned 16. We are all soon to be equal.
I thank Iain X and individuals like him everywhere for supporting the LGBT community in achieving this great feat. While the LGBT community has lobbied tirelessly for years to achieve full equality it is because of the support of enlightened, tolerant, kind and progressive individuals like yourselves that this day finally came. I’m 23 years old and with the help of you all I will spend the rest, and majority, of my life as a equal in the eyes of the law, and society. Not a second class citizen as I have long felt. I can finally legally marry my one true love and call him my husband. For that you have my eternal gratitude.
Despite the fact that all the political parties appear to support homosexual marriage, the SNP refuses to allow a referendum on the matter. If all the parties support it, what choice do the people have other than through a referendum? However, the SNP obviously do not believe in democracy and, like the other political parties, have this arrogant attitude that they know what is best for us. After all, what do the hoi polloi know?
Then we come to the matter of the submissions made to the SNP government on homosexual marriage. Of the roughly 80,000 submissions made, approximately 67% of the people are against it. It may not be a referendum, but it is the closest thing the SNP are allowing us towards a democratic decision. Again, though, what do the SNP do? They ignore the majority. Presumably, again, because in their arrogance, they think they know better than the majority of people.
I am not, and never have been a member of any political party. However, I have supported the SNP in the hope that the people of Scotland will finally get up off their knees After the 2014 referendum though, I will discontinue my support of the SNP because of their arrogance. Unfortunately, it means I will have to stop voting altogether as we, the people, have the choice of voting for arrogant liars and charlatans, or not voting at all. Any hope we had for democracy from the SNP is dead and gone.
I have been told that 67% of respondants were against gay marriage in the consultation, however a huge number of responses were in the form of church-led petitions and church-issued postcards. If all of the “organised” responses were disregarded and only the individual responses taken into account then I’m told that over 70% were in favour of gay marriage. If this astonishing data is true, I think the most remarkable thing about the consultation is the way that religious leaders in some denominations are able to dictate the responses of their followers and the way that results can be skewed by petition. For me this begs the question, “how many of those who obediently filled in a postcard or signed a petition would have given any response at all to the consultation if they had not been guided to do so?”
This piece in Thursday Guardian shows what the facts really are not what the catholic church is claiming :
“…Cardinal Keith O’Brien has announced a fundraising Sunday in August – he wants £100,000 to run an advertising campaign against same-sex marriage. Odd, since they claim to be supported by the majority.
If you count only the full responses to the consultation – not postcards or petition signatures – then 49% were in favour of same sex marriage and 50% were against and a few hundred forgot to answer the question. But nineteen per cent of the total responses came from outside Scotland: most of them apparently from online forms set up by the Christian Institute and Christian Concern. Those responses were overwhelmingly against Scotland making same-sex marriage legal.
Count only what the Scots wrote to Holyrood on consultation forms and letters, and the 2011 consultation reports 65% in favour of same-sex marriage and 35% against. Which matches almost exactly what Ipsos-Mori found when they carried out a poll on same-sex marriage in June 2012: 64% of Scots agree same-sex couples should have the right to marry, 68% agree that churches should have the freedom to wed same-sex couples if they choose.”
I didn’t make any response to this particular consultation but I have used ‘organised’ responses in other consultations. I would be most annoyed if my response was disregarded simply because I used pre designed postcards or even a signed petition because I find it easier. If these methods of consultation are not to be valued equally with the so called ‘full responses’ then this should be made clear prior to the consultation beginning otherwise they should be given the same weight and not be ignored as seems to be the suggestion of some of the previous contributors.
That being the case then 67% of respondents were against this particular proposal
If we are to disregard organised campaigns against Government policies, then it makes a bit of a mockery of all the petitions we are asked to sign week in week out, doesn’t it?
Why should Scottish and Government campaigns in favour of their policies be seen as acceptable whilst opposition is not?
I’d just like to make it clear that I think a petition is a perfectly valid way to raise awareness of an issue in order to put it on the agenda for debate. However, it is a completely different matter when an issue has been placed on the agenda and is open to consultation, as was the case with the gay marriage question. When there is an open consultation I believe that petitions and postcard campaigns are inappropriate. By all means organisations with an interest should make a formal written response, but individuals who wish to respond should do so on their own initiative and in their own words.
Why?
Wow! I remember Angus MacNeil organising a petition, which you are now saying was a total waste of time and energy and should be disregarded before it even reaches the Government.
Or have I got it wrong?
Were the anti-wind farm petitions similarly pointless: and if so, were the Scottish Government utterly wrong to take them into account?
As a wonderfully happy christian community why in the name of our Lord can this “happy and welcoming” collection of people not leave the shadows of despair and purgetry. Is it not time that the Western Isles gladly welcomed and acknowledged our gay members of the community for their tremendous contribution to our island culture and economy and treated all people as equals and allow them to join your “merry band of brothers”. Or is it to much to ask the Free Church and its disciples to take a more educated approach to the homophobia found throughout its ranks.
“We should all thank the Scottish Government today for standing up for fairness and equality and against discrimination and bigotry by moving to allow marriage for all despite the squeals of anti-democratic mobs of sour-faced homophobes who care little for freedom and less for the truth.”
You mean to thank the government today for doing whatever it wants to do despite approximately 67% of the people being against it? Good one Iain, sounds like you’re in support of a dictatorship!