Despite a campaign of hate and bigotry aged by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and some segments of the Anglican Church, Scotland's parliament is poised to introduce and pass legislation which will allow same sex marriages both in church and civil ceremonies. This circumstances underscores to falsity of America's claim to be the home of liberty and religious freedom when the sad reality is only conservative Christians have full religious freedom in the USA and the fact that they continue to be afforded special rights at the expense of the religious freedom of other citizens. The Guardian looks at developments in Scotland and the overwhelming support for marriage equality despite the hate-filled efforts of certain church leaders. Here are some excerpts:
The Scottish government is to introduce new powers to legalise same-sex marriages in churches and in civil ceremonies, despite vigorous and bitter opposition from church leaders. A draft bill that will enable gay and lesbian couples to marry with the same legal rights as heterosexual couples will be published later this year and is expected to be enacted next year, after Scottish ministers resisted intense pressure from the Catholic church to drop the proposals.
The legislation will include significant new protections and "conscience clauses" for churches and individual clergy who object to gay marriage on religious grounds, said Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister. But she added that opposition to the bill – which included 64% of the 62,000 responses from within Scotland to the Scottish government's consultation – had not persuaded her to drop or dilute the measures.
"We believe that in a country that aspires to be an equal and tolerant society, as we do in Scotland, then this is the right thing to do," Sturgeon said.
The measures are expected to be passed by Holyrood next year before similar but weaker measures in England and Wales, to allow same-sex marriages in registry offices, are put before Westminster. Sturgeon said she was confident it would be passed comfortably: all the party leaders at Holyrood supported the measure, and a majority of Scottish National party backbenchers did so. The SNP will give their 67 MSPs a free vote.
[T]he Scottish government's own online consultation document showed a majority in favour of gay marriage: by 65% to 35% against. Major public opinion polls also showed that most Scottish voters supported same-sex marriage, with about two-thirds of Scots in favour.
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