UKIP's opposition to gay marriage is not for pragmatic reasons, but is based on outdated bigotry.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.
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25 Responses to “UKIP come clean about why they really oppose gay marriage”
David Armitage
The question is, what has being gay got to do with the ability to do the job in hand. I’m as straight as it gets, but it doesn’t mean that because i belong to the heterosexual division that i’m better as getting a result than someone who is homosexual, and what has marriage got to do with politics anyway, unless there’s a secret agenda that needs to be hushed up with yet another smokescreen????
David Armitage
It’s pretty easy really, if you were say bi-sexual and had kids but decided that you preferred same sex relationships because they were more stable, loving, less violent etc you would keep your kids with you. I don’t see the problem with it really, unless people think that kids growing up with same sex parents will turn them homosexual, a bit of a backward thought i would say, I myself are straight, so was my ex wife but our daughter is gay, not a problem since she is level headed and sensible and probably one of the most likable people i know (slightly biased). I fail to understand what the fuss is about since it doesn’t involve politics or for that matter religion, except of course the bits adapted by man for the control of the masses, the short answer to how do they have millions of kids? the very same way as everyone else.
David Armitage
Immigration is a problem in this country so lets not make any bones about that, the numbers coming into Britain are extreme and are unfair, yet the Belgians say we have to take them, sadly we have no choice, or at least we haven’t until someone has the stones to stand up and say enough is enough and we are out of Europe. anyone not having had the Eastern Euro experience evidently do not live in highly populated areas and quite possibly also shop at Waitrose. Illegal immigrants are also a burden of our country, so when will the sympathizers actually wake up and accept that while it is alright for people to want a better life, that life should not be at the expense of the British people, scare mongering or not, your comment is as ludicrous as your mindset.
Daniel Smith
The numbers are not extreme.
If you think the European Parliament & Commission are solely made up of Belgians, you clearly have no idea how this European thing works.
amyjane27
i have no problem with gays i did not think bi-sexual was gay being able to have a civil contract already i see no need for a church wedding leave it to the church gays have got everything they wanted i am just bored with the media attention the subject draws