Impact of marriage law on children needs consideration

The deputies' addresses seemed to consist of a repetition of a passionate belief in equality; a hatred of victimisation; a need to leave behind the prejudices of older generations; and a desire to demonstrate that Guernsey is a progressive society.

All very laudable, showing themselves to be compassionate and caring individuals, but in my view also showing a completely unbalanced understanding of the issues before them.

Marriage between a man and a woman has been the accepted basis of our society for hundreds, even thousands of years. This acceptance has been eroded over the last 60 or so years by giving in, all too easily, to the ideals of the liberal left. This States' decision has taken another large step in the same direction without fully considering the consequences. There are many examples in history of problems and unintended consequences caused by sudden changes to the long established, traditional status quo and I fear that this is one of them.

I have to ask myself whether our deputies understand what 'equality' means. Whatever words one uses, one cannot make different things equal. Apples will always be apples and pears will rarely be used to make a pie. What measures should the States take to ensure equality between those people over six foot three and those under five foot five?

Heterosexual couples can produce and bring up children.

That is what led to the establishment of the institution of marriage, as rulers understood that children needed such an upbringing to have the best chance of developing into good citizens.

Same-sex couples cannot produce children together.

I understand that, in seconding the amendment, Deputy Perrot spoke about children, but his was one of the speeches that I missed. From the admittedly second-hand report given to me about his speech, I entirely agree with what he had to say about children needing mothers and fathers, if at all practicable, and that the idea of same-sex marriage offended against our society linguistically, culturally and historically.

In view of his words it is especially surprising that I did not hear the word 'children' mentioned, even once, in subsequent speeches that I heard. I am therefore in the dark about the effect of this legislation as it might concern children. However, I presume that as all married couples are going to be 'equal', there will be carte blanche for same-sex couples to adopt, foster or arrange children through surrogate mothers, as they like.

Several speakers had undertaken impressive research in support of the policy letter but none on the effects on children of being brought up in other than conventional marriages, or at least in stable heterosexual relationships.

Being a busy man, neither have I undertaken any research on this subject. However, I have seen media reports of children being brought up by same-sex couples and being disturbed by ignorance of their parentage. That is a minor aspect of the whole subject, but there must be a wealth of statistics and research to compare the differences between children from married couples or otherwise. If our elected representatives had focused research in this area the public would have heard a balanced debate within the States chamber before voting on such a far-reaching law.

Personally, I feel that society has far more social problems because more children are born outside the stable, traditional family unit and I cannot understand why politicians in Guernsey and the UK don't examine this. Naturally there are many individual examples and much anecdotal evidence to prove otherwise, but that is no reason not to examine significant evidence which might prove my opinion right, or perhaps wrong.

I believe the policy letter was laid before the States as a result of pressure from the homosexual community and it is ironic that this has occurred when, regretfully, more and more heterosexual couples are not making the commitment of getting married.

Surprisingly, I heard no reason why the perfectly reasonable, logical, amendment to introduce civil partnerships was not acceptable and I am left with the impression that our deputies have been duped by a targeted PR campaign, run for and supported by the media, from a single-issue, minority pressure group, namely Liberate.

GEOFF DOREY,

Les Queux,

Ruette des Effards,

Castel, GY5 7DQ.