Gay marriage in Scotland - responses from my representatives

[andrewducker]

I got some responses from the MSPs I emailed (in the order I got them):
Neil Findlay (Labour) sent me an actual email from his Blackberry, clearing written personally, at 9pm. A short but effective "Andrew, I support the proposals for same sex marriage."
Alison Johnstone (Green) had a prepared email talking about how awesome the Greens are on same-sex marriage, how they've proposed amendments for extra awesomeness, and appeared on Newsnight to talk about it.
Margo MacDonald (Independent) informed me that she supported the right of same-sex people who love each other to get married, and of churches to not have to marry people if they didn't want to. For bonus points she included links to the consultation document and an address to write to if I wanted to contribute to the consultation.
Kezia Dugdale (Labour) didn't respond herself, but got her Communications Officer to do so. Which felt a bit more honest than your standard canned response, to be fair. Included was a link to Kezia's official position, which I was glad to see is one that I can wholeheartedly approve of.

No response yet from David McLetchie (Conservative), Gavin Brown (Conservative) or my local representative Kenny MacAskill (SNP).

You can write to your representatives via this site, and if you haven't filled in the consultation yet then that's here.

It was rather cheering to read this piece in The Scotsman today, confirming that the Scottish public are in favour of same-sex marriage by 60% to 19%. It doesn't hurt to out-shout the bigots though.

And if you thought that Scotland had it bad with the religious bigotry then some places have it worse - If women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, sex and pornography would surge and homosexuality would be more prevalentt, conservative Muslim scholars said....eventually leading to "no more virgins".

More of that here.

Comments

[nickys]

Pretty much what I got from them all.

I replied to Margo McDonald saying that I hoped that churches that did want to hold same sex marriages wouldn't be prevented from doing so (Cardinal Loony seems to be pushing for same sex marriages to be civil only at present).

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

I love science fiction and fantasy. But I cannot imagine a society where there are 'no more virgins'.

What do they EXPECT those babies be doing in uteri?

[skington.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was going to say - they do keep on making more virgins, after all.

[skington.livejournal.com]

My Green MSP's office administrator replied, basically saying thanks for getting in touch as they're mostly hearing from the bigots. That's it so far.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help to out-shout the bigots though.

Surely you mean "It doesn't HURT to out-shout the bigots though"?

[andrewducker]

Yes. Fixed. Thank you.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Democracy in action, cheerful to see. And hurrah for Neil Findlay responding in person from his Blackberry.

[ratmist.livejournal.com]

I got the exact same text (with my name of course) from Neil Findlay today, about three or four hours after I sent a message to all my MSPs via the writetothem.com website.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

I got a .pdf of a typed letter from Richard Baker (one of the regional list MSPs for NE Scotland) emailed to me by his assistant. It contains a lot of vague statements but I think he saying he supports civil marriage for anyone but not the move to allow equal access to legally recognised religious ceremonies. Not ideal.

None of the other list MSPs or my constituency MSP have replied as yet though :(