A survey assessing the support of same-sex marriage in Scotland was “deeply flawed”.
This is the view of the Roman Catholic Church which argued that the poll asked leading questions which invalidates the responses given.
Speaking to the BBC, Peter Kearney, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, was commenting on the Ipsos Mori survey which found that the majority of Scots approve of marriage for same-sex couples.
Of the 1,003 people asked, 68 per cent agreed that religious organisations should be able to marry same-sex couples.
The poll also found that 64 per cent support the right of same-sex couples to marry.
“When you begin your question by saying should someone have the right to same-sex marriage you automatically have distorted the result,” he told the news source.
“To be honest the poll that matters is the three-month-long consultation that took place at the end of last year and in that one we know that the vast majority said marriage shouldn’t be redefined.”
Mr Kearney added that the public are generally wary and unlikely to impose restrictions on people’s rights.
But although this consolation looked at just Scotland, the same debate is raging on throughout the whole of the UK.
The government consultation into same-sex marriage closed last week and garnered hundreds of thousands of responses, proving how passionately people feel on the issue.
Same-sex marriage would give gay couples the exact same rights as their heterosexual counterparts.
At the moment, as civil partnerships are not legally defined as marriage, if one partner is adulterous the other partner cannot sue for those reasons when it comes to dissolving the relationship.
Couples in a civil partnership can only dissolve the relationship on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour, long-term separation and desertion. Unlike divorce, adultery is not recognised.
Same-sex marriage would also mean couples who move overseas are more likely to have their union recognised, something that can be a problem with civil partnerships.
- Solicitor-approved Pre-Civil Partnership Agreement: A prenup for civil partners. Includes template agreement and expert advice
Published on: June 18, 2012
