One of the leading family lawyers in the United Kingdom has said that English law no longer has a clear concept of marriage because of the changing nature of relationships and the introduction of legal rights for homosexual couples.
Baroness Deech, the chairman of the Bar Standards Board, claims that traditional Christian image of a lifelong union of man and woman is no longer accurate because of the changing nature of relationships and the introduction of legal rights for homosexual unions.
She believes that human rights law could soon be used to legalise full homosexual ‘marriage’ as the law may soon rule that it is discriminatory to ban homosexuals from marrying in the same way that heterosexual couples do.
Baroness Deech said that differences between civil partnerships and marriages should be preserved, and criticised recent Labour laws that allow homosexual couples to be named on birth certificates with no mention of a father.
She said that same sex parenting is not good for children as they are deprived of the influence of a father or mother.
‘I regret the downgrading of the father as a person of importance – the legislative dismissal of the contribution of half the population to the upbringing of the next generation,’ she said.
‘The removal of the requirement to consider the need for a father is to make a fresh statement that the child does not need a father, no matter how liberally the old law’s requirement was interpreted. It sends a message to men, at a time when many of them feel undermined as providers and parents, contrary to Government policy in this field.
‘There is a wealth of research showing that children need fathers, not just two parents. Children need to see complementary roles, the relationship between the sexes, a microcosm of society, as they grow up,’ she added.
(Click here to read the full text of the lecture)
The crossbench peer made her comments in the latest of a series of public lectures as professor of law at Gresham College, London. She has previously considered the idea that families could be forced to look after grandparents in their old age, and claimed that only ‘the gold digger’ would benefit from rules giving cohabiting couples the same rights as spouses.
In October 2009, Baroness Deech had addressed the family situation in the United Kingdom and called for a change in public attitude towards divorce. She outlined the cost of divorce in financial and emotional terms and called for a ‘new debate on marriage and the family under the umbrella of moral and civil renewal’.
(See the CCFON report)