Glasgow council adds support to gay marriage consultation
Councillors in Glasgow have agreed a motion supporting Scottish Government proposals to allow same-sex marriage.
Councillor Alex Dingwall, who tabled the motion, said: “I’m immensely happy that today Glasgow has continued our city’s proud record of opposing discrimination in all its forms and unanimously supporting the campaign for marriage equality.
“In doing so we have rejected those who want to tell our LGBT community in Glasgow that they are not equal, that they are wrong, that they are evil. We are happy to join with the Unitarians, Quakers, Metropolitan Church, Liberal Judaism and others who want to provide equal marriage.”
The motion suggests that the Scottish Government should recognise the “shift in public attitudes within its current consultation on equal marriage”, and that establishing equal marriage and mixed sex civil partnerships would “in no way undermine the rights and freedoms of those religious bodies which do not wish to participate in them”.
The head of the Scottish Episcopal Church also voiced his support for gay marriage this month. The Most Rev David Chillingworth wrote that it is the government’s right to legislate for the change.
Writing in the Scotsman, he suggested his own church may “consider changing our canonical definition of marriage”.
He wrote: “If, following the consultation period, the Scottish government and parliament feel that they should legislate in this way, I believe that it is their right to do so.
“It is clear that there would be an ‘opt-out’ protection for those who cannot accept this. Churches and faith groups would have to decide whether they wished to use or to stand outside the provisions of such legislation.
“The suggestion has been made that the Scottish government does not have a mandate to introduce legislation which is of such fundamental significance for our society.
“Jesus did not call the church into being as a citadel of orthodoxy. He was constantly criticised because he spent time with people who didn’t fit the conventional patterns and were deemed unacceptable by others.”
Last week, the head of the Catholic church in Scotland said gay marriages could be “harmful to society”.
Meanwhile, Glasgow archbishop Mario Conti has written to all Scottish parishes to urge them to oppose the government’s marriage equality consultation.
He said that churches would “actively campaign” to block marriage rights for gay people and warned that the move would create “larger divisions” in society.
