UKIP's opposition to gay marriage is not for pragmatic reasons, but is based on outdated bigotry.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”
David Armitage
I’m more than aware how European parliament works, I’m also painfully aware that every decision made comes from Belgium, for example the street lighting has been approved by the Eurpoean commission in order to save the carbon foot print in Europe, this is a fact and came from the offices of our own local government. The area where i live has a growing population of Eastern Europeans which currently out number the UK born residents within one mile of the shopping parade. of thirty eight shops, twenty four are less than one year old and all have the label POLSKI SCHLEP on the livery, all of which are funded by grants handed down from the government, they actually brag about this and are proud enough to show you the paperwork, UK businesses are lucky to get an overdraft let alone a thirty thousand pound start up, additionally street crime and shop lifting is on the increase and so are arrests, none of these self proclaimed gypsies claim racism, they simply smile at the fact they’ve been caught and are released on bail to disappear within the community. statistically we have a problem and the tax payer can’t afford to keep paying the bill, and people like yourself are obviously oblivious to it, so where ever it is you live you are certainly not on the ground dealing with the reality of this problem, you need to remove your head from your plumage and open your eyes.
marlene
I personally have no objection to immigrants coming to this country as long as they have a job to go to and not rely on state handouts housing and the same benefits given to UK subjects.AS FOR GAY PEOPLE THIS IS NOT A CHOICE PEOPLE ARE BORN THIS WAY SO WHY SHOULD THE LAW BE ALTERED IN ANY WAY TO PREVENT THEIR HAPPINESS AFTER ALL GAYS ARE HARD WORKING PEOPLE WHO CONTRIBUTE GREATLY TO SOCIETY. ISN’T THIS WHAT WE WANT IN OUR COUNTRY to EVEN MENTION GAYS IN THE SAME BREATH AS PAEDOPHILES BEGGERS BELIEF AND CAN ONLY COME OUT OF THE MOUTH OF A MISCHIEF MAKER WHO NEEDS TO GET THEIR FACTS STRAIGHT.
Sam_Beresford
This article basically sums up why we need UKIP.
How can anyone with a modicum on intelligence claim that the idea that marriage is between a man and a woman is “outdated bigotry”? This is how it has always been received in our culture, at least until the question of same sex marriage exploded onto the national scene in the last few years. There was no mandate for the change, no actual need for it, because civil partnerships gave gay couples exactly the same rights as married ones, and it caused needless antagonism to people who hold a traditional view of marriage.
It says a lot about our times that the kind of reactionary, vicious intolerance Mr Bloodworth has expressed can be written in a publication that identifies itself as ‘progressive’ and committed to equality. There is nothing egalitarian about despising those who are uneasy about changing something has been a foundation of our civilization for centuries. Neither is it ‘progressive’ to dismiss so blindly those who hold a cogent view of why we should not have made this change. Some of these arguments are neatly explained here, in an article from a US perspective:
http://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/the-liberal-case-against-gay-marriage
I would actually love to see a coherent argument made for gay marriage. Half-baked insults and unquestioning groupthink don’t cut it, Mr Bloodworth.
Frosty
Please keep publishing all this lefty rubbish, and get Edd Balls on TV more,
Great for Sensible people to see who are the “New loony Left” if ever you people get your hands on nthe levers of power, our country would have the social and economic standing of Greece
suzieteesside
I support gay marriages.. but UKIP is the only party that can get us out of EU and stop immigration. . I don’t agree with world aid when our own country is suffering .. plus no foreigners should be allowed to take our jobs when we have high numbers unemployed we need to spend money on training British people instead of giving away benefits and jobs to foreigners. .. We need to stop Muslim asylum seekers being allowed in we don’t want a country over run with Muslims we have nothing in common with Muslims. . And it’s very dangerous how much there own in property and business in the uk and then show more support to ISIS than the UK British Army. .