YOUR MP WRITES: David Davies, MP for Monmouth

4:50pm Monday 11th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By David Davies MP

THE gay marriage bill divided the Conservative Party almost down the middle in the vote on Tuesday, and I was one of those who voted against David Cameron.

I am not in any way against equal rights, I don’t believe in discrimination, but while we heard a lot about gay rights we didn’t hear much about the rights of parents and churchgoers.

In my view churches should have the right to practise their faith as they see fit.

Yet there are many people who want to force churches to hold gay weddings against their will.

It is inevitable that someone will try to do this using the European Court of Human Rights.

For all the talk of safeguards the government can have no influence over rulings from the court in Strasbourg.

An important question for me was this: If the European Court decides that churches SHOULD be forced to conduct gay wedding ceremonies would the government be prepared to defy the ruling?

I put this point directly to the minister in the debate and she was not able to give the assurances I wanted.

The second point is the rights of parents.

The law will now mean changes to the way that sex education is taught in schools.

What will those changes be?

I have no idea and neither does the government to judge from the answer to one of the questions I tabled on the issue.

As a parent of young children myself I believe I have rights and one of them is to have some say over how my children are taught.

That right is eroded by this bill.

I strongly believe that we should all respect the rights of gays, and oppose discrimination, but it would be nice to see some of the more militant gay rights groups showing a similar understanding of rights of parents and church groups.

Prior to all of this being announced not one person had ever contacted me to ask for a gay marriage bill, everyone seemed to think that civil partnerships were fine.

We have created a division where none existed.

I have only spoken to David Cameron on a few occasions but if I see him again before the election I will encourage him now to concentrate on implementing more of the issues which were actually in the Conservative manifesto, such as a married couple’s tax allowance

Comments(8)

Mervyn James says...
6:43pm Mon 11 Feb 13

One of the few tories who used his intelligence and didn't play to the gay gallery. These are the points most have been making all long. However I would have liked him to go further and tell the GAY lobby not us, it is a 'right' too far..

Militant gays do not care who they overrule, they are extremely self-centred mostly and riding on a wave of 'equalities' few others can even dream about. Disabled, old people, unemployed young people, all sectors attacked on a daily basis by the despicable political party tories present.


Do you have to be black, ethnic, or Gay to get any sort of equality, seems yes, you do ! equality is a joke, loudest noise wins, is NOT equality.

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On the inside says...
6:57pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Disability and age are also covered by the equality act or are you just picking on the ones you don't like.

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Llanmartinangel says...
7:19pm Mon 11 Feb 13

Mervyn James wrote:
One of the few tories who used his intelligence and didn't play to the gay gallery. These are the points most have been making all long. However I would have liked him to go further and tell the GAY lobby not us, it is a 'right' too far..

Militant gays do not care who they overrule, they are extremely self-centred mostly and riding on a wave of 'equalities' few others can even dream about. Disabled, old people, unemployed young people, all sectors attacked on a daily basis by the despicable political party tories present.


Do you have to be black, ethnic, or Gay to get any sort of equality, seems yes, you do ! equality is a joke, loudest noise wins, is NOT equality.
"Militant gays do not care who they overrule, they are extremely self-centred mostly and riding on a wave of 'equalities' few others can even dream about"

Militant anyone does the same Mervyn. Militant religious groups, militant Welsh people, Militant whoever. I've not seen gay people blowing up tube stations or burning people's holiday homes or vandalising property. The fact is most people are reasonably tolerant, especially if they can't see the harm. I've no strong view on the gay marriage bill but I'm damned if I can see it bringing civilisation down around everyone's ears. As I've said before, it's not the people who love in this world that cause the problems, it's those who hate.

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Mervyn James says...
9:15pm Mon 11 Feb 13

On the inside wrote:
Disability and age are also covered by the equality act or are you just picking on the ones you don't like.
tolerance is based on equality and fairness, the Gay campaign hasn't covered itself in glory that way. I've explained already where I stand, over the church/marriage thing. Gays were intolerant, fair-minded were called names. 'Supporters' copped out with excuses which displayed very poor understanding of what equality and rights actually meant. In essence equality is not possible for anyone, without discriminating against someone else. What we wanted to see, and didn't was common-sense and compromise used, and it didn't happen, that make uncomfortable issues for other areas.

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Katie Re-Registered says...
8:10am Tue 12 Feb 13

David Davies and the religious fundamentalist lobby claim that they are 100 per cent pro-marriage, but actually this is a lie as they are not. Prior to this reform, couples in which one partner underwent sex reassignment surgery were forced to divorce. Under this new law, they are allowed to stay married. Religious fundamentalists like this 'member' for Monmouth as well as wanting to deny equal rights to same-sex couples are actually are also demanding the right to break up other people's marriage again if those people happen to be trans.

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Katie Re-Registered says...
8:18am Tue 12 Feb 13

"I am not in any way against equal rights, I don’t believe in discrimination, but while we heard a lot about gay rights we didn’t hear much about the rights of parents and churchgoers."

There are those of us who find this constant 'we is being discriminated against, innit' bleating somewhat odd when one considers that Britain is one of only two countries in the world to actually reserve seats in parliament for clerics. The other one is Iran: perhaps if Mr Davies and his flock feel they are being persecuted because of their religion then they might consider to go live there where they are assured by Mr. Ahmedinejhad that there aren't any gay people? Go on, you're free to go, it's not like 1970s Soviet Russia, innit?

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Cymru Am Beth says...
2:44pm Tue 12 Feb 13

Katie Re-Registered wrote:
David Davies and the religious fundamentalist lobby claim that they are 100 per cent pro-marriage, but actually this is a lie as they are not. Prior to this reform, couples in which one partner underwent sex reassignment surgery were forced to divorce. Under this new law, they are allowed to stay married. Religious fundamentalists like this 'member' for Monmouth as well as wanting to deny equal rights to same-sex couples are actually are also demanding the right to break up other people's marriage again if those people happen to be trans.
I can't see what the problem is with 'civil partnerships' which appear to be marriages in all but name.
Why can't this distinction be maintained?

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Wildethoughts says...
7:27pm Sat 16 Feb 13

If this man opposes something then it must be right. A maveric, out of touch, and whats worse is that he has this veneer of authority as he has the letters MP in front of his name. So he doesn't particulalry want his children being taught about the diversity of human sexuality in school. I really hope for their sake that his children are not gay (because if they are gay, then they are gay now). Its hard enough for gay young people to grown up in a world constantly exposed to the rhetoric of those who use religion to give credence to their prejudice. Constantly subjected to overt and sublte prejudice and discrimination. Mr Davies it is quite simple, homophobia is the product of religion, it is so established that it is even legislated for. Now at last thankfully, the structure of our society is becoming what is should be - equal. Although changes to the law won't change the attitutes of some - Mr Davies' comments are testiment to this.

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