Equal Marriage Roundup

Along with the Parliamentary work being carried out by the LGBT+ Lib Dems exec along with Lib Dem MPs and activists, there's plenty happening in the media around the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.

Lib Dem Peer Lord Rennard has written to the Telegraph calling for religions to be allowed to make their own minds up on equal marriage:

Those who consider that marriages according to their religion are different from others are entitled to do so. But they are not entitled to continue to perpetuate discrimination against those who do not agree with their particular articles of the faith or hold other beliefs.

LGBT+ Lib Dems' Vice-Chair Ed Fordham has written for Liberal Democrat Voice on some of the problems with the Bill and issues concerning trans people.

The bill has merit in that it enables marriage for same sex couples, but until the rights of the transgender community are incorporated (which we hope to achieve through amendments) it will not be equal marriage for all.

In the Guardian, Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger writes in support of equal marriage for the Movement for Reform Judaism.

I have heard a number of religious leaders saying that their religious liberty will be fatally compromised by this proposal, that they will be forced to do something that their conscience cannot bear. I ask these people of sincere religious faith to look at this from our point of view. At the moment, I am legally prevented from doing something that my conscience tells me should not only be permitted, but positively celebrated.

Former Lib Dem Voice editor Mark Pack writes about this weekend's YouGov polling on equal marriage.