Lies, cover ups and more lies

It’s amazing how many facts have been hidden and lies told in order to sell same-sex marriage to MPs as well as the public.

The Daily Mail has today revealed previously hidden e-mails between the Home Office and the Department for Education, which show that same-sex marriage will be taught in schools to small children if marriage is redefined.

The Home Office has reportedly kept this hidden because they were afraid of the media reaction, one official describing it as a “minefield”.

None of this is surprising, but it is a shame that it has been exposed only after the Government consultation on same-sex marriage has closed.

Spot the Whopper

But hiding things from the public is not as bad as the regular fibs that have come from the Home Office on same-sex marriage.

Consider this recent statement from Home Secretary Theresa May:

“We have been clear that no religious organisation will be forced to conduct same-sex marriages as a result of our proposals.”

Yet homosexual Government Minister Crispin Blunt told the BBC:

“It would be hard to guarantee that clergy would not face court challenges if they refused to preside over same-sex unions. We’re seeking to protect, indeed, proscribe religious organisations from offering gay marriage. That may be problematic legally…We’ll have to see what happens with that.”

So who is telling the truth? Perhaps Crispin hadn’t read his brief that day?

Many of us knew all along that Government guarantees on religious freedom were utter nonsense.

Once marriage is redefined, any attempt to restrict the marriage rights of same-sex couples will be met with challenges under equality and anti-discrimination laws, particularly Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits unlawful discrimination.

Any religious protections put in place by the Government, such as restricting gay weddings to civil premises, will be tested in the Courts. It will be the judges in Strasbourg who will have the final say over any challenges on same-sex marriage rights.

Any Government guarantees on this issue therefore are essentially worthless. Worse, they are misleading and dishonest.

Gullible MPs

Unfortunately, Home Office fibs on same-sex marriage have been passed onto many MPs, and most of them have swallowed it hook, line and sinker.

We recently read a letter from Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to a Conservative MP. She stated:

“I would like to make it clear that these proposals are only concerned with the issue of equal civil marriage and are not concerned with religious marriage.”

Yet we don’t have two different types of marriage – we only have one type – legal marriage - that can be registered on either civil or religious premises. However you celebrate it, the end product is the same, and that is why redefining marriage will have profound legal consequences for everyone, not just those who want a civil ceremony.

She also wrote: “This means that marriages conducted through a religious ceremony and on religious premises will remain legally possible only if they are between a man and a woman.No religious organisation, premises or leader would face a successful legal challenge for failing to perform a marriage for a same-sex couple.”

This is completely false, as explained above. If marriage is redefined, same-sex couples will be entitled to exactly the same rights as heterosexual couples as a starting point under the law. This includes the right to get married in a church. Government assurances on religious freedom are worthless as it is for the Judges to decide whether any Government safeguards are compatible with Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

I guess the Home Office is hoping that, if they tell a lie long enough and loud enough, then people will start to believe it.

Regardless of the legal situation, it is clear that, if same-sex marriage is introduced, Lynne Featherstoneand the homosexual rights groups will then push for it to be allowed to take place in churches formally. This is what happened with Civil Partnerships.

She let slip during a Radio 5 Live interview that same-sex marriage ceremonies in churches may ‘come back another day’. Why wasn’t that in her letter to the MP?

This misleading rubbish from the Home Office is being passed down to MPs who are then passing it onto their constituents when queried about the Government’s proposals.

It is astounding how misinformed MPs are over these issues. Let’s hope that they can be properly briefed before they get to vote on the proposals, for all of our sakes, and not least for children in schools.

Andrea