Watch the launch of the Coalition for Marriage
A campaign to stop the redefinition of marriage has been launched today with the support of Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and a range of Bishops, MPs and other leaders.
The campaign seeks to defend the legal definition of marriage as that between one man and one woman, and a petition has been launched which can be signed here.
Speaking at this morning’s launch of ‘The Coalition for Marriage’ (C4M), Lord Carey said that the move to redefine marriage is a “political power grab”.
“For thousands of years, the union of one man and one woman has been the bedrock of societies across cultures all around the world,” he said.
“Marriage is a cornerstone of our society. Because of this, I believe the general public will oppose the present attempt to fundamentally alter – and undermine – the institution.”
Coalition for Marriage
C4M is an umbrella coalition of individuals and organisations, made up of Labour and Tory MPs, members of the clergy, academics and religious leaders. It includes both secular and faith-based groups.
Supporters of the campaign have proposed that most people in Britain do not want marriage redefined to include same-sex couples.
A new poll by ComRes found that 51 % of people agree that “no one has the right to redefine marriage for the rest of us”, given that same-sex couples can already secure all the legal rights of marriage by entering into Civil Partnerships. One third of people (34%) took the opposite view.
No Democratic Mandate
Next month, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone will publish a consultation on same-sex marriage, although the consultation will be asking ‘how’ such a measure will be introduced, rather than ‘whether’ it should be.
But speakers at the C4M launch questioned whether the Government had any democratic mandate to change the definition of marriage, noting that no party had mentioned the proposal in their election manifestos.
Chairman of C4M, Colin Hart, said:
“The 24 million married people in this country are not even going to be asked whether they mind their marriage being redefined.”
Lord Carey reminded the audience that when Civil Partnerships were on the table in 2004, the Government at the time had assured the House of Lords that marriage in its traditional form would be kept distinctive and protected.
This promise could now be broken, with Prime Minister David Cameron determined to bring in full same-sex marriage by 2015. However, it has been reported that as many as 100 Conservative MPs will oppose the measure when it reaches the Commons.
Legal Implications
The term ‘marriage’ is used over 3000 times in UK legislation, leading some to question how easy it would be to redefine a term which has been used in its traditional sense in legislation for over 800 years.
Yet homosexual rights organisation Stonewall has suggested that the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ should be erased from the statute book. It has already published a draft Bill calling for spouses to be known as ‘parties to a marriage’.
Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, responded, stating that:
“The proposal to wipe the terms husband and wife out of the law at the stroke of a pen underlines the far-reaching implications of redefining marriage.”
He said that homosexual rights activists wanted “to impose their agenda on every married couple by force of law”.
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