We must not reject the gay marriage Bill

From The Telegraph-

Later today, peers will begin a two-day debate on the same-sex marriage Bill, an issue that divides friends, families, political parties, different faiths and the Church of England. Inevitably, it is going to divide the House of Lords.

The cross-bench peer, Lord Dear, wants to reject the Bill at second reading. But this would stop it going forward to its committee stages and deny the Lords an opportunity to examine all the issues properly. That would be a terrible mistake. It would give the impression that the Lords had rejected the measure out of hand without proper debating this important proposed change to the law.
The Bill deserves full scrutiny by Parliament and all views need to be heard. Lord Dear has claimed that the legislation would take up parliamentary time – but that is exactly the reason we have the House of Lords, a revising chamber to consider and, if necessary, amend bills that come to us from the Commons.

I understand why many of my colleagues in the Lords have strong feelings about changing the law on marriage. The problem seems to be that there are different views on what the word “marriage” means and what it stands for. To many, it describes an event that takes place in a registry office, or on a lawn, or on a beach, or in a hotel. Sometimes, it is a religious event in a church — in fact, it is often one of the few times that couples actually go to church. Increasingly nowadays, the couple already have children or have been married before or are of different religious faiths.

More here-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10094869/We-must-not-reject-the-gay-marriage-Bill.html