Comment: Marriage would be an unnecessary victory roll for gay rights, David Coburn argues
Last week, UKIP accused the government of ‘picking a fight’ with religious people in Britain over plans for equal civil marriage, which is backed in principle by leaders of the main political parties. It said the issue was ‘in the domain of the church and other faiths’ and equal marriage an ‘act of intolerance in itself’.
PinkNews.co.uk, which actively supports efforts for marriage equality between gay and straight couples, asked David Coburn, UKIP’s openly gay London Regional Chairman and a London Assembly Candidate, why they were taking this stance.
The same-sex marriage debate is not an old-fashioned left-right political issue. It’s about freedom. The definition of parties as right or left is increasingly out of date. Parties these days are more accurately described as authoritarian or libertarian.
If you are looking for an authoritarian party you need look no further than the Liberal Democrats or Labour and to a slightly lesser extent, but not much, the Tories.
The Tories over the last few years have raced to catch up with Labour’s authoritarian politically correct agenda. Under Cameron, they fully adopted it and in some ways exceeded it in an unprincipled race to grab votes. In the same way, unprincipled Cameron in opposition matched Brown’s catastrophic squandering of taxpayers’ money pound for pound until the markets and Banks collapsed and he suddenly had to change tack.
The authoritarian Lib-Lab-Con parties want to regulate everything you do and even what you think through their chosen instruments of ‘elf ‘n safety, Security mate!, political correctness and Equality Fascism.
“Don’t smoke that… Don’t drink… Eat your five portions of greens… You can’t say that… You can’t think that… Do what we say but not what we do… Smile for the security cameras… ”
The Lib-Lab-Cons have created a grotesque, maximum security, Kafkaesque society where everything including speech and thought are regulated in the name of security and equality. You can stab old ladies or promising teenagers and do three months, but woe betide if you transgress the language and thought police.
The country is sick and tired of being told what to do and think.
UKIP is a profoundly libertarian party dedicated to small government, low taxes, live and let live, free speech and thought and above all toleration of the rights and differences of others.
UKIP thoroughly supports equal rights for same sex civil partnerships and equal treatment financially as married couples. As a matter of fact we support the same allowances for gay partners with children as married couples with children.
Our problem is with the word “marriage”.
If the government does legislate in this way UKIP believes that any criticism of same sex marriage which may be expressed by someone on the basis of their faith could be classified as a “hate crime”. That would be a grotesque assault on peoples’ freedom of conscience. As we all know these things tend to be the thin end of the wedge once the government’s ludicrous overpaid /over-pensioned thought police get on the job.
I have always fought for equal treatment and I believe civil partnerships have achieved that. However I think it does the gay community no good whatever to cross the street and pick a fight with people of faith.
We have for so long been persecuted ourselves that it seems like performing an unnecessary victory roll over a defeated enemy to demand that our perfectly satisfactory arrangements should be called “marriage”. This shows a lack of toleration towards others who look on marriage as a holy sacrament between man and woman.
Cameron is using the gay community to make himself look hip with the voters without thinking through the ramifications.
By the way, 20 per cent of UKIP’s list candidates in the London Assembly Elections are openly gay. Commentators on PinkNews.co.uk have asked if I was a “real” gay. I await my invitation to come up for a cup of coffee!
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