Thank you for supporting Equal Marriage: An Open Letter to the Rt Hon Alistair Burt, MP February 5, 2013
Posted by Phil Groom in Current Affairs, Watching and Waiting.Tags: Alistair Burt, Church of England, Equal Marriage, Freedom to Marry, Letter to MP, LGBT, Marriage, Same-sex marriage
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Dear Mr Burt,
Thank you for supporting equal marriage.
I was delighted to discover recently that you are one of the signatories to the Freedom to Marry launch letter, a letter which I, as one of your constituents, wholeheartedly endorse.
No doubt you have received many messages urging you to reconsider your position. I, however, would like to encourage you to stand firm and vote in favour of the legislation, to ensure that LGBT people are recognised as equal members of our society and allowed to share the same freedom to marry as everyone else.
As you are no doubt aware, there are many Christians and members of the Church of England such as myself who support this measure despite the official opposition of the Church, which we say does not speak in our name: allowing gay couples to marry does not undermine the institution of marriage; to the contrary, it can only help to strengthen society and marriage itself as more people commit to lifelong, faithful relationships.
I will be publishing this letter on my blog (address below) and, with your permission, please, would also like to publish your response.
Thank you once again for your support; I look forward to hearing from you soon.
With all good wishes,
Phil Groom
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Phil Groom
https://philgroom.wordpress.com
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CC. Colin Coward, Changing Attitude; Freedom to Marry.
Phil's Boring Blog 
This is a very positive thing to do. It is important to thank our friends – more important than criticising opponents. However, I suspect that my own MP would not want the correspondence that has taken place between us published but who knows, I may have persuaded him to take a more liberal stance.
Thanks Harvey: as you say, I felt it was important to express my appreciation of Alistair’s stance, especially given the noise of the opposition. It has long seemed to me that — to take hold of Stonewall’s catchphrase — most people today accept that some people are gay; and they’ve gotten over it.
And whilst I’ve been typing, the vote has gone through: 400 to 175 in favour in the Commons — the ayes have it! Now we await their Lordships’ pleasure…
[…] BURT, Alistair Subject: RE: Thank you for supporting Equal Marriage: An Open Letter Date: 5 February 2013 12:21:28 GMT To: Phil Groom Cc: Colin Coward, Changing Attitude; Freedom to […]