Video: The UK same sex civil marriage debate

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Channel 4 News has aired a debate between the Coalition for Marriage and the Coalition for Equal Marriage on the Governemnt’s plans to introduce same sex civil marriage.

During the debate,Sharon James, the spokesperson for the Coalition for Marriage refered to a 2009 PinkNews.co.uk interview with Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of Stonewall as a reason why gay couples should not be allowed to marry. In the interview, Mr Summerskill said: “There are quite a lot of gay and lesbian people who wouldn’t want marriage, and some have explicitly said so. I think Antony Sher [the gay actor and playwright] gave an interview a while back where he said ‘If it was marriage, I wouldn’t want it. It recognises what’s special about me and my partner.’ And we know there are lots of lesbians who actually don’t want marriage.”

Howevever, in 2010, following support for same sex marriage by the deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and the Labour Leader Ed Miliband for same sex marriage in articles for PinkNews.co.uk, Stonewall announced that it would campaign for same sex marriage.

The debate also featuring Conor Marron from the Coalition for Equal Marriage was chaired by the veteran broadcaster Jon Snow. Mrs James claimed that same sex civil marriage in Britain might lead to “three some marriages” and would destroy the concept of “husband and wife.”
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