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Showing posts with the label Mike Weatherley

UK gvmt promises to legalize same-sex ‘marriage’ before 2015

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LONDON, U.K. , – Britain’s coalition government is aiming to legalize same-sex “marriage” before the next general election in 2015, announced Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone on Saturday.  The move comes after the “personal intervention” of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron , reports the U.K.’s Daily Mail. The decision to push for homosexual "marriage" reportedly comes after the "personal intervention" of UK Prime Minister David Cameron. “I believe that to deny one group of people the same opportunities offered to another is not only discrimination, but is not fair,” said Featherstone.  The government will begin formal consultations on the issue in March. Same-sex couples in Britain have been able to access comparable benefits to married couples since 2005 when the country legalized same-sex “civil partnerships.”  The government’s latest effort would focus strictly on changing the perennial definition of marriage. Mike Judge, head of communications ...

UK gvmt promises to legalize same-sex ‘marriage’ before 2015

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Britain’s coalition government is aiming to legalize same-sex “marriage” before the next federal election in 2015, announced Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone on Saturday.  The move comes after the “personal intervention” of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron , reports the U.K.’s Daily Mail. The decision to push for homosexual "marriage" reportedly comes after the "personal intervention" of UK Prime Minister David Cameron. “I believe that to deny one group of people the same opportunities offered to another is not only discrimination, but is not fair,” said Featherstone.  The government will begin formal consultations on the issue in March. Same-sex couples in Britain have been able to access comparable benefits to married couples since 2005 when the country legalized same-sex “civil partnerships.”  The government’s latest effort would focus strictly on changing the perennial definition of marriage. Mike Judge , head of communications for The Christia...

United Kingdom: Conservative MP Suggests Churches Who Marry Straight Couples Must Also Perform Partnership Ceremonies

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Image via Wikipedia Mike Weatherley , the Conservative MP for Hove , has called for churches to be banned from holding marriages if they refuse to perform civil partnerships for gay couples. He says that the idea will bring more equality for gay couples. In a letter to prime minister David Cameron , Mr Weatherley wrote: “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples there will be inequality. “Such behaviour is not be tolerated in other areas, such as adoption, after all. Related articles Hove MP wants to take away church licences if they wont wed gays. (therainbowpost.com) Conservative MPs plan for fall session (cbc.ca) Scottish Conservative Party set to disband (telegraph.co.uk) MPs reject Nadine Dorries' proposal to change law on abortion counselling (newhumanist.org.uk) the end of brighton - Brighton, United Kingdom (travelpod.com) The Beatles, Oasis and Hollywood A-listers - welcome to the UK's coolest register office!...

UK MP wants churches shut down if they refuse to marry gays

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Christian churches must be banned from performing any marriages if they refuse to hold civil partnerships ceremonies for gay couples, a Conservative MP has demanded. Mike Weatherley has urged the Prime Minister to show no toleration to churches which turn away gays and lesbians who seek to marry in their premises. The Hove and Portslade MP has in turn been criticised by Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton for “over-stepping the mark”. In a letter to David Cameron the south coast MP had said that the proposed Coalition amendment to the 2010 Equality Act to allow religious bodies or individual places of worship to register the controversial ceremonies would remain “unfair” as long as heterosexuals could marry in the churches of their choice. The law must instead be changed to compel churches to register civil partnerships, said Mr Weatherley, whose constituency near Brighton which has one of the highest numbers of gay couples in civil partnerships in the country. He tol...

MP wants to close churches who don't marry gays

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Mike Weatherley , the Conservative MP for Hove , has called for churches to be banned from holding marriages if they refuse to perform civil partnerships for gay couples. He says that the idea will bring more equality for gay couples. In a letter (see below) to prime minister David Cameron , Mr Weatherley wrote: “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples there will be inequality. “Such behaviour is not be tolerated in other areas, such as adoption, after all. “Until we untangle unions and religion in this country we will struggle to find a fair arrangement.” Mr Weatherley said that 2005′s Civil Partnership Act was an “uneasy truce” between religious groups and gay rights campaigners and that lawmakers knew an “inherent inequality” would persist. Hove, which neighbours Brighton, has a large gay community. The area has one of the highest rates of civil partnerships. Ministers say they plan to move forward legislation to allow civil partner...

UK Minister wants to close down church who refuse to marry gays

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Conservative MP Mike Weatherley is concerned about a matter of equality, and has written a letter to the Prime Minister to ask the Government to prohibit those churches which refuse to perform 'gay marriages' from performing marriages. His Grace was going to say 'heterosexual marriages', but that would be a tautologous. His Grace is pleased (kind of) to reproduce the letter:  The Rt Hon David Cameron MP – Prime Minister 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA 21st August 2011 RE: SAME-SEX UNIONS IN THE UK I write as Member of Parliament for Hove and Portslade; a constituency which falls entirely within Brighton & Hove, the city with the most same-sex households in the UK. Like many of my constituents, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the inequality which exists between the unions of same-sex couples and those of opposite-sex couples in this country. As you are acutely aware, the Civil Partnership Act 2004 resulted in the introduction of Civi...

British MP urges government to force churches into same-sex unions

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A member of U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron ’s government is calling for a ban on marriages at Christian churches if they refuse to also perform same-sex unions. Mike Weatherley and Prime Minister Cameron “As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples, there will be inequality,” wrote Mike Weatherley, the Conservative MP for Hove and Portslade, in an August 21 letter to Cameron. While Weatherley’s proposal is currently a “minority view,” it “could quickly become a main stream point of view,” warned Neil Addison, national director of the U.K.‘s Thomas More Legal Centre. The U.K.‘s 2004 Civil Partnership Act , which legalized same-sex unions, forbade them from being performed in religious venues or from using religious imagery. But Cameron’s Coalition government has proposed an amendment to the 2010 Equality Act that would allow churches and other religious venues to perform same-sex unions if they choose. Critics have warned that the measu...