We were very lucky yesterday to have a special forum meeting at St Mary’s with John Curtice.
Prof John Curtice is a member of St Mary’s and the Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University. He is a public opinion guru – constantly analysing figures, opinion polls and election results. In his forum presentation yesterday he reviewed changing attitudes to same-sex marriage and then took questions from the folk who were there.
Introduced by Pam Richmond of St Mary’s Justice and Aid Network, the forum is available in two videos – the first being the presentation and the second a question and answer session.
There were lots of interesting things which came out of the session. It was noted for example that the Roman Catholic community in Scotland seems to be particularly accepting of same-sex marriage proposals. Also that those who go to church more often are more likely to be less accepting. Along the way we learned about what John called a phenomenal cultural revolution – a change in public attitudes which is striking, recent and unlike almost anything else which is tracked.
For those who subscribe by email, the videos can be seen on the Cathedral website.
Samesexmarriage will add to our immigration problem. This is the ugly of Nature not the equality of People. Will destroy the growth to our kids. Might as well cancel all marriage and no more tax loopholes. Change the way we occupy our Jails. How can anyone approve two guys adopting a girl even at the age of 1? How sick does that sound? Trafficking would be legal just about.. This is so stupid even to think about gay marriage. Are we really becoming barbarians of entitlements to such a law? Where does it end? pets? Where does it go? How far?
Is this what is technically known as a ‘word salad’?
I think Scott has a few issues. One of them being grammar…
Actually, I don’t think we have an immigration problem. Personally, I like living in an ethnically diverse society. I fail to see how children will stop growing. I do not see tax advantages in marriage, but I suppose there may be some. Homosexuality has not been illegal these past 30 years, and therefore I cannot see the point about prisons. Gay couples of both sexes are already able to adopt. There is no statistical evidence that such adoptions are any less successful in terms of good outcomes for the child, while we know that remaining in care, does carry a high risk of damage to the child. Gay people in consenting relationships are no more (and come to that no less) likely to exploit other people than straight people. Um, have you done much reading around this issue? Perhaps it would be easier to debate if you picked one of the issues over which you plainly feel great unease.
Many thanks for the comments so far. I think that I would regard it as a triumph for love, joy and peace if subsequent comments on this thread dealt more with what Prof Curtice had to say than what Scott Downer had to say.