Right-wing nutjobs go on and on about gay marriage – again

The Christian homophobes are a real hoot. They’ve launched a new organisation today called the Coalition for Marriage (read “Coalition for Traditional, Man–Woman, Normal, Proper, Good, God-approved, Bible-approved, Decent, Seemly, Acceptable-To-All-Right-Thinking-People Marriage”).

Behind it are a pair of the usual suspects: the former Archbish of Cant, George Carey, and the Christian Institute.

You can read about Peter Tatchell’s views on the new coalition here.

And in the Daily Mail today, Carey says – get this – “The state does not own marriage . . .”

Quite. And nor does the church. Oh, hang on a minute . . .

“The honourable estate of matrimony precedes both the state and the church, and neither of these institutions have the right to redefine it in such a fundamental way.”

OK, so who does own marriage, then, apart from the couples concerned?

As for ownership – or lack of it – by the state, you seem to have been happy for centuries for the state to legitimise marriage by recognising opposite-sex unions in law. If the state doesn’t own marriage, why have you not objected to the state’s interference in what should be an arrangement between one person and another (and, you would no doubt wish me to add, God)?

And Colin Hart of the right-wing Christian Institute says in the same article: “The word marriage is woven into the fabric of our national laws. That can’t be just unpicked in a single stroke.”

But it can, Mr Hart, it can. Governments “unpick” all the time when one piece of legislation overturns another – whether it’s been there for centuries, years or months.