Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Thérèse Coffey Excerpts

Tuesday 5th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

The primary commandment is to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I have been reminded by one ordained constituent that that should be used as a way of defining the second great commandment, which is to treat my neighbour as myself. Essentially, we are asking whether we can remove the barriers that stop same-sex couples enjoying the commitment—the “at one” meaning—of marriage. That is what the Bill comes down to. It does not redefine marriage; it just takes away barriers.

I was taught by three people who were homosexual. I only knew one was homosexual at the time. He got married aged 60 to a woman, one got murdered by a rent boy and one spent 30 years in the Community of the Resurrection. In his book, “Someday I’ll Find You”, Harry Williams, who also wrote “The True Resurrection” and “The True Wilderness”, explained the difficulty of coming to terms with his homosexuality. He should not have had to do that. He should have had the chance of a happy life, whether or not he chose to partner with somebody else.

People have said that there is huge psychological effect on a child of being brought up by two people of the same sex. That is not my experience of those I know. Incidentally, the children who turn out best are not those of a husband and wife married to each other throughout the child’s upbringing, but those of widows, because widows feel a sense of responsibility and have the support of society.

Leaving children aside, we ought to have the same kind of understanding that Margaret Thatcher showed when, in 1967, she voted for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. That was the year Chief Justice Warren of the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a unanimous judgment in a case called Loving v. Virginia, where a couple, one called “Black” and one called “White”, wanted to be married in the state of Virginia. Read the judgment and understand that that case got to the Supreme Court because people were putting arguments against people of different colour being able to live together. Those arguments are absurd now, and it is absurd that we are having this debate.

The difference between a civil partnership and a civil marriage is that in a civil partnership the registrar speaks and in a civil marriage the couple are able to say “I do” and “I declare”, in the same way that in church they say “I will”—but in the civil sense, that is the only difference. I wish that those who have spoken against the Government’s proposals—incidentally, they were foreshadowed in “A Contract for Equalities”, which was launched by the current Home Secretary before the general election—

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

Three days before.

[Sir Peter Bottomley]

Three days before, as my hon. Friend says. Those who say that there was not a codicil, at least, in the manifesto are factually wrong. Most people did not know about it, but that is not the important point. We have had two and half years of notice and warning, but we ought to recognise that we in fact have had about 50 years.

If we go back, it is 177 years since civil marriage was brought in, and it is 187 years since the third English university was created where people could go without being an Anglican. We have to remember that we are taking away some of the barriers that we ought to have got rid of a long time ago.

A man called Tribe, in a book from 1935 called “The Christian Social Tradition”, stated:

“The problem of society is the finding of unity in diversity, and to reconcile freedom with order.”

I think that is loving my neighbour as myself, and that what I have experienced, good or bad, others should have a chance of choosing or avoiding. I have not experienced discrimination. I have watched others who have. I hope that when this matter is concluded those who have spent their time writing messages saying that we are all wrong will realise, as people did with the creation of civil partnerships, that maybe they can see life differently in the future.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

It is a privilege to take part in the debate. Speeches of high quality have been made by Members on both sides of the argument who feel passionately about the issue, and in general the tone has been measured.

I shall be voting against the Bill because my perspective on what marriage is really about is different from that of some other Members. Of course marriage is about loving commitment to one another, but for me it is fundamentally still about family, the bedrock of society. Marriage involves special provisions, such as support for the family and the procreation of children. Of course that is not the case for all families, for various reasons, but I nevertheless think those provisions are too important to be tampered with in rushed legislation that has not been subject to adequate consultation.

We can request as many legal opinions as we like, but the Government do not plan to indemnify any institution against legal costs if the measure is challenged in courts in this country or in the European Court of Human Rights. They are also continuing to confine civil partnerships to people of the same sex, perpetuating what is effectively a two-tier institution, either by not repealing the law or by denying it to people of opposite sexes. I feel that there are too many inconsistencies, and there is no doubt that the intertwining of Church of England law with the law of England is very difficult to unpick.

I think Members recognise that those who oppose the Bill do not oppose it because they are homophobes, or solely for religious reasons. In fact, more Catholic Conservative Members will be voting for the Bill than will be voting against it. It is fair to say, however, that there is concern about the way in which the Bill is being introduced. Not enough attention has been paid to the valid concerns of people who are genuinely frightened about the possibility, mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), that they will be prosecuted if they do not offer weddings of all kinds. Although the Minister did not say this, legal advice suggests that people who work for councils will not be able to discriminate. I understand why that might be, but it is simply not valid to say that people will not be affected by the Bill.

I am not suggesting that the love between people of the same sex is something evil. History shows that it was Henry VIII who, at the same time as setting up the Church of England, criminalised homosexuality. That law was repealed by Queen Mary, a Catholic monarch, and reinstated by Elizabeth I. I should like to think that it is the Church of England that has played the principal role in some of that horrific abuse.

The Bill will probably be given a Second Reading, but it is important that the Government listen to all sorts of voices in Committee, and that those who are not selected as members of the Committee attend, make their views heard and table amendments.

I know that many other Members wish to speak. I thank them for their patience.