UKIP's opposition to gay marriage is not for pragmatic reasons, but is based on outdated bigotry.
Nigel Farage has got himself into a spot of bother over his party’s stance on same-sex marriage.
First his party made an apparent U-turn over its earlier opposition to gay marriage when, during a question and answer session with Pink News, a statement attributed to Farage said that the party would not, after all, campaign to abolish same-sex marriage.
According to Pink News, the answers given during the online interview with Farage appeared to show that UKIP would be reviewing all of its policies – including its opposition to same-sex marriage.
A welcome development. Or at least so the readers of Pink News believed.
Soon after the interview was published, however, Farage issued a statement to say that the comments attributed to him were “not made by me and not approved by me”.
“It was a draft by a staff member that should never have been sent out, he added.
Farage went on to say that UKIP’s opposition to gay marriage was two fold:
“First, we did not think it should have been made a political priority at a time of many other pressing issues and pointed out that the measure had no mandate from the electorate.
“Secondly we were concerned that because of the role of the European Court of Human Rights in British law that faith communities which had strong objections were at risk of being forced to conduct gay marriages.”
So on the one hand UKIP are opposed to gay marriage because it’s a bad time to focus on it (there are more important issues), and on the other hand because “faith communities” risk being “forced to conduct gay marriage”.
In other words, UKIP opposes gay marriage for practical rather than moral reasons (not that that’s OK or anything).
But someone ought perhaps to tell UKIP in Wales this, for their objections to gay marriage are rather different.
A same-sex marriage statement published on the UKIP Wales website today starts off on message, saying that “UKIP Wales wholeheartedly supports the UKIP policy regarding same sex marriage”. However the party also lets slip the real reason it is opposed to same-sex marriage – and it has nothing to do with faith communities or it being a bad time to focus on the issue.
No, UKIP are opposed to same-sex marriage, the UKIP Wales website states, because “marriage is between a man and a woman for the procreation of children”.
Well, at least we’ve cleared up that it has nothing to do with pragmatism and everything to do with outdated bigotry.
Don’t vote UKIP if you’re a gay couple and want to get married. Or a hetrosexual couple who want to marry but aren’t sure about children. That isn’t what marriage is for, after all.
25 Responses to “UKIP come clean about why they really oppose gay marriage”
UKIP Kiddie
I am a UKIP supporter but am not opposed to gay marriage and I don’t believe any of the drivel trotted out by this article or the media in general because they are all in the pockets of the three main parties. Thank heavens for UKIP because they have woken the British public from its slumbers to realise they have been taken for granted all these years. You only have to look at the condescending BINGO advert by the Tories to see that. The Establishment is running scared of us ~ the party could be over for the Lib/Lab/Con. And by the way, don’t be fooled by the Tory/Lib Government. They only legalised gay marriage because they thought they’d get some votes out of it. It certainly wasn’t for any kind of moral reasons.
amyjane27
how exactly do they manage to be gay and have millions of kids
Daniel Smith
He was a UKIP Councillor when he said it, not a Tory.
They didn’t get rid of him because of his comments, they got rid of him because he drew too much media attention.
Daniel Smith
How many MPs to UKIP have? It was actually Labour/Lib Dem who’s parties have a majority of people who support equal marriage that really pushed it.
What Establishment? You referring to having a government? UKIP are just disgruntled Tories who scaremonger against immigrants.
David Armitage
I might be wrong about my understanding of politics insofar as it is a matter of National Security, the Economy of the country, education and the the Health Service, Immigration and law and order, all of which are priorities, but it beats me where exactly a persons sexual preference comes into the equation. Religion should not be used either as a yard stick for what I consider to be matters of pure politics, it seems that the UKIP club have paddled in dirty waters for too long and now are trying to wash away the impurity with hogwash and bull. Being gay and wanting to be a couple united by marriage is a right freely available to anyone, it does not say in the bible that marriage is one man and one woman, nor to be honest does it say that marriage is conducted with a money making ceremony, it certainly does not say that marriage is part of a political agenda??? Farage needs to stick to the practical applications of politics and work for the people of this country regardless, what next, hang the Jewish community for the crucifixion of Christ, but not the Catholics because Pontious Pilot washed his hands??? sometimes the ridiculous nonsense of the powers that appoint themselves defy the reason to be considered an intelligent human