"I think objecting to what Nick Clegg said doesn't equate to bigotry! ... I think his statements about gay marriage, the fact that the Lib Dems coalition government never put in any proposal for gay marriage in their coalition agreement or even in their manifestos, and this is one of the most important changes being proposed ever, makes me rather suspicious of Mr Clegg."
"The proposals for gay marriage completely redefine marriage; they turn it into a genderless institution ... [T]here's no reference to children whatsoever, and also there's no rationale, then, for not privatising marriage, or even having incestuous marriages or having threesomes as we're seeing now in Brazil. All of that foundation which we build around children is actually shattered at the level of law, with this new conception of marriage."
"We're not going to be bullied by people who fling names at us rather than listening to our arguments. Calling people 'bigots' is not an argument, it's not particularly clever and it's rather bullying." Liddle: "... [I]t marks you down as people not to be taken seriously." Anthony McCarthy: "Yes. The other thing, it lumps - and I know that Peter Tatchell does this very often - he tries to draw parallels with racially-mixed marriages and with the opposition to that in some American states some time back ... I do think that (opposition to racially-mixed marriages) is bigotry, without a doubt; but of course those (were) heterosexual marriages. They did nothing to change the nature of marriage, so we are dealing with a completely different kind of argument there. Yet this constant lumping-together, to depict the opponents of (same-sex marriage) as bigots, is a form of thought-control. I hope people can see through it."
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