A homosexual Conservative MP says there is “no clamour” for redefining marriage within the homosexual community.
Conor Burns, an MP in the south of England, said he was baffled by the Government’s move to bring in same-sex marriage.
And he also commented that he was unconvinced that churches would be protected under any same-sex marriage legislation.
Forced
Speaking to a Northern Irish newspaper, the Ulster-born Conor Burns said: “I marvel at why we’re bringing this forward; there is no clamour for this at all within the gay community.
“I’m very concerned – and I’m going to need some serious convincing about this – that while the Human Rights Act remains in place we cannot give the guarantees that I would want to see that churches would not ultimately be forced under human rights legislation to conduct such ceremonies.
“I would want, if this bill becomes law, cast iron guarantees that any religious organisation who on religious grounds object to it would not ultimately be compelled to do that.”
Mr Burns also said that the ‘discrimination’ against homosexual people had been “dealt with by civil partnerships”.
Compelling
The MP commented: “I’m a conservative both with a big C and a small c.
“Marriage is an institution that is the building block of stable society.
“All the evidence points to the fact that kids who are brought up by a married couple have higher education attainment rates, lower propensity to commit crime; marriage is a force for good in society and I think you need absolutely compelling reasons to want to redefine what marriage means.
“At the moment I am not convinced that those compelling reasons exist.”
Division
Earlier this month policy analyst Jill Kirby said David Cameron is creating “unnecessary divisions” by pushing forward with redefining marriage.
She said that the issue has not built support, but instead has set up “antagonism between family campaigners and gay people, alienating many Tory voters and party workers, and setting churches and faith groups at odds with the Conservative party.”