Baroness Warsi’s 'concern' over effect of gay marriage laws on religious groups
Baroness Warsi, the faith minister, has signalled that she is not satisfied that laws introducing same-sex marriage contain enough protections for religious groups.
The former Conservative Party chairman said she could not support the Government bill during votes in the Lords because of reservations about how clauses designed to prevent faith groups being sued for refusing to perform gay weddings would work in practice.
She raised the prospect of smaller churches, mosques and temples which are linked to local community centres, finding themselves in a legal grey area when same-sex marriage becomes possible from March next year.
But she also told an audience at an event in London in support of the Kaleidoscope Trust, a gay human rights charity, that her party had been on the wrong side of history of the issue of homosexuality in the past.
Lady Warsi, the UKs first Muslim Cabinet minister, apologised for remarks she made as a Conservative election candidate in 2005 suggesting that lowering the age of consent would open the way for children to be "propositioned" for gay sex.
more...
Sound familiar?