Current law forces churches to discriminate against gay couples

London – 23 February 2010

The Greens have become the first and and only political party to
officially support an end to the ban on civil partnerships being
conducted in places of worship.

The new Green Party policy would allow gay-affirmative churches, such
the Quakers, Unitarians and Metropolitan Community Church, to host
civil partnership ceremonies for the first time. They are currently
prohibited by law from hosting religious civil partnerships.

The vote at the Green Party’s Spring conference, which took place in
London on the weekend, makes the Greens unique among British political
parties. No other party has the same commitment to end this
discrimination.

By a near unanimous vote, Green delegates voted to strike down the ban
on religious civil partnerships.

The motion was proposed by human rights rights campaigner Peter
Tatchell, who is also the Green Party’s human rights spokesperson. It
was seconded by Darren Johnson, the openly gay Green member of the
London Assembly and the Green parliamentary candidate for Lewisham
Deptford.

A copy of the motion agreed follows below.

The new policy will now be added to the Green Party’s Manifesto for a
Sustainable Society.

“The State is denying, by force of law, the right of religious bodies
to treat same-sex couples equally. It is forcing them to discriminate,
even when they don't want to,” said Peter Tatchell.

"Gay-accepting churches, such the Quakers, Unitarians and the
Metropolitan Community Church, want to conduct civil partnership
ceremonies and should be allowed to do so.

"The ban on religious civil partnership ceremonies smacks of
authoritarianism. This injustice was written into the Civil
Partnership Act by the Labour government in 2004, in a bid to appease
homophobic religious leaders. At the time, the government refused all
requests to remove the prohibition on religious civil partnership
ceremonies.

“The Greens are supporting Lord Alli’s bid to amend the Civil
Partnership Act to allow faith organisations to decide for themselves
whether they want to offer religious civil partnerships to same-sex
couples.

“If the law is amended, we expect that gay-affirmative denominations
will agree to host civil partnerships. Some individual Anglican
churches, and some liberal synagogues, are likely to follow suit.

“I may disagree with religion and want a separation of religion from
the state, but I still object to religious same-sex couples being
denied the option of having a civil partnership in their place of
worship. If that is what they want, it is up to them. Exclusions based
on faith or sexuality are wrong.

"The Unitarians are hosting a conference on marriage equality in
London this coming  weekend, where I will outline new campaigns to
challenge the bans on same-sex civil marriage and opposite-sex civil
partnerships. The aim is full equality for homosexual and heterosexual
couples," said Mr Tatchell.

Green Party conference motion RR507 (passed)

“The Green Party supports an end to the ban on civil partnerships
being conducted in places of worship, whilst recognising it is up to
religious bodies to make this decision and not for the state to
dictate to them prohibitions on civil partnerships.”