Marriage petition expected to pass 100,000 next week

The national petition launched less than a fortnight ago by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M), is expected to hit the key milestone of 100,000 next week.

The jump in numbers is thanks to an influx of paper copies of the petition, which have been downloaded from the C4M website, or sent out to campaign supporters. The petition form can be downloaded here.

The petition, which opposes Government’s attempts to redefine marriage, was unveiled on 20th February by Colin Hart, the Campaign Director of C4M, at a press conference attended by prominent church leaders, MPs, peers, legal and constitutional experts and members of the public.

It was launched in response to Government plans to consult on how to introduce same-sex marriage, which are expected to be announced later this month by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone.

The petition calls on the Government to leave the ‘legal and cultural’ definition of marriage alone, which currently defines marriage as the voluntary union between one man and one woman for life.

At the launch C4M unveiled polling showing a majority of the British public (51 per cent) back the current status, with just a third (34 per cent) backing the change.

Mr Hart said: “During course of the next week, the petition we started will hit the important milestone of 100,000. This shows just how many people care about marriage. Those who have signed the petition come from all walks of life, religious and non religious, but they are all united by their support of the traditional definition of marriage.

“I am confident that this number will grow further as we continue our campaign, showing the Government that the public supports traditional marriage, that it is wrong to redefine marriage without a real and meaningful consultation and that any change will have all sorts of damaging unintended consequences.”

C4M is a grassroots campaign representing faith groups, MPs, peers, academics, lawyers, pro-family organisations and members of the public. The petition was launched at 9am on Monday 20th February and says, “I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.”