Daily Mail questions public support for gay marriage

Tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail has questioned whether the public really do support proposals to allow gay couples to marry and also has accused the government of ‘bullying the Church’.

It will hardly come as a surprise to learn the Daily Mail has questioned whether the general public really do support giving gay couples the right to marry. The paper also accuses the government of trampling over ‘grass-roots Conservatives’ by moving ahead with its plans for gay marriages and also accuses the government of ‘bullying the Church’.

The Daily Mail questioned the public consultation on gay marriage in an editorial article. The article opened with ‘Although the Government billed its plans for gay marriage as a ‘consultation document’, Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone left no doubt yesterday that the legislation is already a done deal’

The article continues by stating that David Cameron and Theresa May were ‘quite happy to trample over the vehement opposition of the mainstream churches and many grass-roots Conservatives’ adding ‘But is being doubtful about gay marriage really the same as being anti-gay’

The article continues ‘But would gay marriage confer any more legal rights than civil partnership, and is there really a genuine demand for it? If there is, the Government certainly hasn’t demonstrated it, so is it fair that ministers should be bullying the Church so viciously over the issue? In trying so desperately not to be ‘nasty’, they are in danger of further undermining traditional marriage and riding roughshod over religious freedoms enshrined in British law and culture for centuries.’

Quite how the government has been ‘bullying the church’ isn’t clear. The Church of England and the Catholic Church has certainly been outspoken in its opposition to plans to allow gays to marry in a civil ceremony. The Catholic Church, at the weekend, told its congregations across the country it was their “duty” to oppose the plans but didn’t point out that the government was allowing proposing to introduce civil gay marriages – not religious ones.

So far credible opinion polls have put public support for gay marriage in the majority as The Times newspaper has come out in support of gay marriage. David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband and Alex Salmond have all voiced their support for gay marriage though there are some within the Conservative and Labour parties who do oppose the plans.