Marriage Equality Referendum/Bill 2016

Prepared by: TRH Dr.A.Campbell MBBS

Today I wish to call for a public referendum if we cannot agree to a bill for a
Marriage Equality Act for marriage to be redefined in our society to grant
equal rights for every citizen living within the United Kingdom. I am aware
that this bill is a taboo subject, I ask my peers to respect my time and raise
their motions at the end, I am willing to answer any questions.
As a first world country, we lead by example, so why is it we are in the history
books when it comes to marriage equality? Is this due to religion? We are, by
definition a 'Christian Nation'. However we are much more diverse than that,
having citizens who are Hindu, Bhuddist, Muslim, Shik, Athiest, Jewish and
many smaller religions.
For the nature of my evidence I look to Christianity, the biggest opposer, or is
it?
CofE: Progressive but resistant. Same sex marriage is okay for normal folks
but not priests.
Catholic: Homosexuality is sin
Methodist: Passive
Quakers: Supportive of LGBT
Baptists: Homosexuality is sin.
What is the biblical evidence for this? I quote ''and they called unto lot, and
said unto him, where are the men which came in to thee this night? Bring
them out unto us, that we may know them'' Genesis 19:5.
''Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in manner, giving
themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth for
an example, suffering the vengence of eternal fire'' Jude 1:7
These are paragraphs where 'to know' and 'strange flesh' are interpereted for
homosexuality. However in a court of law I would argue this is vague and not
strong enough to support such an argument. 'To know' from Hebrew very
rarely means 'to bum'. In this case it most likely means 'interrogate'.
Secondly 'strange flesh' could refer to angels or beasiliaty when translated
from hebrew.
So we look further ''thou shalt not lie with mankind, as womankind: it is
abomination' Leviticus 18:22

and
''if man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination: they shall surley be put to death: their blood
shall be upon them'' Leviticus 20:13.
Counter evidence in the bible is present however, for example this 'riske'
extract:
''I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant has thou been
unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of woman'' 2
Samuel 1:26
There is no evidence in the new testement, all this is old testement which is
taken from the Torah in Judaism.
Now everyone in here put aside religious beliefs for a moment. This is about
civil rights, human rights. We have had women raise their right to vote, their
right for an equal status to men, equal pay. We saw the civil rights for black
rights, which still continues today in some parts of the world. We define
ourselves as a 'Christian Nation' but 44.7% of the nation has no faith at all
according to a poll last year compared to the 47.8 that are of 10
demonimations of Christianity with 31.1% of that number being Church of
England.
I stand here today, asking, begging for you to put personal feelings aside, this
isn't about you. This is about the rights of the people. Why should we deny
someone their rights because they are different to ourselves? Should we care
about what goes on in the bedroom as long as a person pays their taxes
obeys the law and doesn't force others to do something they do not agree
with. Last time I checked I did not have a Homosexual knocking on my door
trying to convert me to their sexuality with the good news of Sir Elton John.
This is about a basic right, I am not asking for you all to become flaming
homosexuals, or we would never get to the end of any of our debates. I am
asking for you to allow a minority of our society have an equal right to the
majority. This isn't me making a bold statement, this is me asking for the
decent thing, the moral thing for society, to make marriage, in the eyes of the
law, equal for everyone regardless or race, gender, religion, sexuality and,
within the the legal age, age.
I open the floor to you, my peers now, I personally challenge every single one
of you against me to step forward and ask ONE thing, I will work hard to
defened our citizens who are LGBT and fight for their right, this is a civil rights
movement that WILL NOT be ignored. This is like a Hydra, the greek mythical
beast, you remove one head, two more will grow back, each battle LGBT
people loose, fuels their fight for equal rights, the same thing happened with

racial rights, the same with with women's rights. Do you want to be seen in
20, 50, 100 years time on the right side of history the hero, or the wrong side
as the villan.

My proposals for the bill are:

Make marriage equal in the eyes of the courts

To convert civil partnership to marriage in order to provide all legal

status given with marriage

To protect the right of any religious establishment to DENY carrying out

a marriage be it same-sex or traditional at the disgression of the
religious leader of that establishment on a case by case basis as would
be carried out for any marriage request at a religious establishment

To consult all public bodies and religious bodies who wish to voice their
concerns or support

To put this issue to public vote if we the government cannot make an

unbiased decision