Christian Institute to take legal action against UK government over NI gay marriage changes

Nov 20, 2019 by Jill

by Marcus Jones, Premier:

Campaign group Christian Institute (CI) has written to the Northern Ireland Secretary with a threat of legal action over recent changes to marriage law in Northern Ireland.

As of January same sex couples will be able to marry there after an intervention by politicians in Westminster while the Northern Ireland Assembly is in stalemate.

According to CI, the changes go much further than current laws in Great Britain with fears there won’t be protection for church ministers who object.

CI is calling for the law to be exactly the same as the rest of the country, ensuring freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

CI spokesman Simon Calvert said: “Same-sex marriage is about to be legalised from 13 January and proper protections for those who disagree will not be in force. That’s the implication of what the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) says.

“Parliament took the best part of a year to debate introducing same-sex marriage in England and Wales. For Northern Ireland, MPs took only a couple of hours. In the rest of the UK there are many protections for those who disagree with same-sex marriage. Not so in Northern Ireland, with the Secretary of State and the NIO not seeming to be bothered.

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