The Anglican Bishop of Rochester has called on the British Government to agree that marriage between men and women is the basis of society.Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali raised the issue during a discussion of same-sex relationships in the House of Lords.
Liberal Democrat Lord Lester of Herne Hill, a leading light in the campaign to introduce civil partnerships in the UK, had questioned the Government’s contention, in a case before the European Court of Human Rights, that same-sex relationships “fall outside the ambit of family life”.
Bishop Nazir Ali asked justice minister Lord Bach: “Does the minister agree that, while Article 8 of the European convention provides mainly for privacy in the home and Article 14 provides for non-discrimination, Article 12 provides for a view of marriage between a man and woman and of family life that is basic to the existence and continuation of any society?”
Lord Bach replied: “Article 12 speaks for itself. Men and women of marriageable age have the right to marry and found a family according to the national laws governing the exercise of that right.”
He said that the civil partnership bill had made a distinction and did not call single sex partnerships marriage.
But he added: “In many important ways, it was very similar, particularly in the many legal rights that it quite rightly gave to single-sex partnerships, but it did not call those partnerships marriage, and that remains the Government’s policy.”
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(Source: RI)