NEW BRIEFING: PARTY CONFERENCE POLICIES ON MARRIAGE
Nov 15, 2023
Last month’s party conferences discussed several issues connected to real marriage. We’ve produced a new briefing highlighting what the main parties said on marriage and the family and gender.
The briefing mentions the issue of conversion therapy. Following the King’s Speech on 7 November, there have been significant developments:
- Pressed as to why a conversion therapy Bill wasn’t in the speech, Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt said “we have a manifesto commitment, and it is still a manifesto commitment”. But the 2019 Conservative manifesto made no such commitment.
- Some pro-LGBT Conservative backbenchers are openly discussing amending the forthcoming Criminal Justice Bill to introduce a conversion therapy law. A larger group of Tories has urged the Government to drop the plans.
- Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities Anneliese Dodds said: “If the Conservatives can’t ban it then Labour will.” Labour backbencher Kate Osborne tabled an amendment to the motion approving the King’s Speech, calling for a “no-loopholes ban on so-called conversion therapy”.
- Meanwhile, Lib Dem Peer Baroness Burt of Solihull is bringing forward a private member’s Bill in the House of Lords on the issue.
Critics have warned of the implications the conversion therapy plans could have on real marriage. Under a new law, it would still be legal for a vicar to counsel a married man against heterosexual adultery, but it might not be if it was about homosexual adultery. Commentator Douglas Murray, an atheist gay man, has warned of this danger.
At C4M, people from different parties and political persuasions come together to fight for real marriage. We will continue to stand up for common sense policies, which defend lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.
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“I support defining marriage as the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others.”