Marriage: Brighton Unrocked

The Coalition for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, has mounted a campaign to stop a Tory MP who supported same-sex marriage from being re-elected in Brighton...

According to a report on Breitbart, the group now claims to have 1,500 supporters who have been urged to vote for “anyone other than the Conservatives” in the Brighton Kemptown constituency.
The group has its sights set on unseating Simon Kirby, who has been vocal on the issue of same-sex marriage...

No idea why Pink News are giving these fantasists the time of day.

Here's the original report on nutty far right website Breitbart.

It's laughable.

PS Coalition For Marriage have a whopping 1,800 followers on Twitter.

Update: According to Gscene all candidates currently standing in Kemptown & Peacehaven support gay marriage.

Coalition: Marriage Wrecker

This story - Cracks In The Coalition Marriage - made the front page of The Sunday Telegraph today.

The start of a party conference is when broadsheets try and do some serious yacht-rocking, often with a serialisation of some "tell-all memoirs" - as with Damian McBride's in the Mail before Labour's last week.*
Happily for Dave in Telegraphland this has been overshadowed by his mortgage stunt, "foreign beggars", and the ghost of Margaret Thatcher.
They still must consider gaymarriage the most damning extract from In It Together; Matthew d'Ancona's "insider's story about the coalition", which "reveals furious rows between ministers threatened to tear it apart – and David Cameron’s support for gay marriage provoked such a backlash he wondered if it was worth the cost."
The Telegraph was the newspaper most virulently opposed to equal marriage, of course [See Fagburn passim ad nauseum].

'What they don’t want is to roll up to a church and find Derek and Clive having their wedding”: thus, in a conversation early in 2013, did the Prime Minister explain to his advisers the resistance of Tory party members to same-sex marriage.
The image of Dudley Moore getting married to Peter Cook – the original, awesomely profane Derek and Clive – was an arresting one, and not quite what Cameron had meant. His point was that Conservative activists were generally opposed to gay marriage only if it meant change in their places of worship.
A secular reform could be managed, he believed. As he would later admit to the same colleagues, he had radically underestimated the scale and depth of the hostility in his party to same-sex unions...

You can read the extract here - I have some things to do, but will collect my doubtless thrilling thoughts, and a bit later Fagburn may finally reveal my big conspiracy theory about how Cameron came to support gay marriage.

It's so exciting I guarantee your knob will drop off.**

[Edit: Now decided to save it for my tell-all memoirs -Dave's said it's all balls, by the way, but he would say that, wouldn't he?].

The cartoon above - drawing a somewhat tenuous link between same-sex unions and the European Union - is from the Telegraph in January - if you want to Google them there's a heck of a lot of cartoons portraying Cameron and Clegg as a gay couple.
HAHAHA! etc.
This one pleased the Coalition For Marriage so much, they put it on their website. 

* Fagburn feels the need to point out once again that McBride's publisher, Iain Dale, is a violent hooligan, who Sussex Police have left free to troll the streets.

** Offer only applies to men. Sorry.

Marriage Polls: Christian Miracles

David Cameron’s plans to introduce same-sex marriage could have cost the Tories the support of millions of churchgoers, polling suggests. 

Almost six out of 10 people who attend services regularly say they are less likely to vote Conservative at the next election because of the plans to redefine marriage.

More than a third of those polled said it had no effect on whether they would support the Conservatives but most of them would never vote for the party anyway...

Daily Telegraph. 

But of course this is in the serial gay marriage bashing Telegraph. 
Can you guess who's behind this poll? 
Yup, it's the evangelical Christian fruitloops at Coalition4Marriage.
And it was conducted by ComRes, who've also conducted marriage polls for the Christian Institute and Catholic Voices. 
Here's why they were both discredited by using dubious methods/questions - and, as if by magic, produced results that showed support for gay marriage at about half that of other polls.
How do they do it?

Coalition For Marriage: Busted

"The Home Office last night blamed an 'IT glitch' which it said had now been rectified and insisted that the responses had not been lost and were being resubmitted."
Mass spamming ahoy!
Ha ha!

On The Buses: Busted

The Twittersphere has been ABLAZE this afternoon over news that posters bearing the legend, ‘Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!’, would be appearing on London buses next week.
This was announced in a statement by two rabidly anti-gay Christian grouplets, Anglican Mainstream and Core Issues, who said it was their response to Stonewall's current advertising campaign; "Some people are gay. Get over it!"
But these went further than Coalition 4 Marriage's highly contentious press and online adverts, as they suggest gay people could, should and can be "cured".
Initially the idea that these would be approved sounded so improbable I wondered if it was an evangelical prank - a false flag campaign that wasn't really happening, but was just designed to generate much sound and fury, and thus loads of free publicity.
Which it has.
But apparently the Advertising Standards Authority had okayed it, claiming the advert "does not infringe any advertising rules in the UK".
Eh?
Section 4.1 of the ASA Code states; "Marketing communications must not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. Compliance will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards."
Its blatantly false claims about the voodoo of conversion cures are also clearly in contravention of Section 3.
[Update: "Core Issues co-director Mike Davidson said: "We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They okayed it and now it has been pulled." BBC News].
Mind you the ASA have form on appeasing homophobic religious nutters. 
At around 6pm it was announced that the campaign had been blocked at the behest of the hapless, hopeless Mayor Of London, Boris Johnson - after The Guardian told his office what was going on.
Transport For London then tweeted to say that they had also been completely unaware of them.
Unbelievable.
What a shower, what a joke, what a farce!

   

Update: Alok Jha in The Guardian online on why the claims of "conversion therapy" are junk science.

Petitions: Well Fancy That!

'PinkNews.co.uk’s Edmund Broch explores how accurate the reliable the system is that appears to suggest that the Coalition for Marriage has amassed 400,000 signatures in opposition to the Government’s plans to allow gay couples to marry and asks ‘do their numbers add up?’'

Pink News, Sunday April 8th.

'An AllOut.org campaign to support Electronic Arts over its inclusion of gay characters in two recent video games has had to be suspended following hackers’ efforts to add thousands of fake signatures.'

Pink News, Wednesday April 11th.

Oops!

PS The Twitter account of America's National Organization For Marriage has been hacked by "radical homosexual activists". Tee hee...

Daily Telegraph: Never Mind the Pollocks

'The majority of Conservative MPs believe David Cameron’s same-sex marriage plan is doomed to failure and is a source of deep concern for their constituents.
'An all-party poll of MPs found only 56 per cent believed the proposal to legalise same-sex marriage would succeed, with 41 per cent of Conservatives believing it. Almost as many Tory MPs (37 per cent) believed the proposal will fail and 22 per cent said they were unsure, the survey carried out by ComRes found.

'It means that three out of five Tory MPs have doubts that the plan will go ahead. By contrast, more than two thirds of Labour MPs and almost all Liberal ­Democrat members polled were confident that it would go ahead.

'The poll also found that 60 per cent of MPs did not think that the policy was of “significant importance” to their constituents. Among Tory MPs the proportion rose to 69 per cent...'

The Daily Telegraph. 

The fact that this is in the serial gay-marriage bashing Telegraph should be enough to set alarm bells ringing.
That the "poll" was conducted by ComRes for Coalition For Marriage means it should be taken with a mine of salt.
They've been incredibly mendacious with their marriage equality poll findings before.
Note also how the Telegraph has inverted the news - that a majority of MPs believe the proposal to legalise same-sex marriage comes after how a majority of Tory MPs thought it was "doomed to failure".
And the opening line; "The majority of Conservative MPs believe David Cameron’s same-sex marriage plan is doomed to failure and is a source of deep concern for their constituents", is contradicted by the fact that 69% said they did not think the policy was of "significant importance" to their constituents". 
Another thing that stands out is the omission of the obvious question of how many MPs polled support gay marriage.
ComRes tell me that only 154 MPs replied to their survey - that's less than a quarter - more data later...

Update: Here are the full findings. As above, the questions asked - and not asked - are absolutely ridiculous.

PS The Telegraph runs a companion piece 'The Tory party has lost sight of its true values: 'Decontaminating’ the brand has alienated voters – but there is a way back' which, curiously, does not mention gay marriage explicitly. 

Cunts For Marriage: Commercial Break

Do you really want all these gorgeous happily-married couples to die in a terrible fire, screaming in pain as they think about all their unfulfilled dreams which you - yes YOU - have personally ruined?
Cause that's what'll happen if they let THE GAYS marry.
Don't say I didn't warn you!!!
 
• With thanks to Political Animal for the tip-off. x

PS This banner ad has appeared on websites and blogs today.
The claim they make that "70% of people say keep marriage as it is" is a lie, and not backed up by any reliable recent survey.
Here's why the poll they refer to is junk.
Please send complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.

Gay Marriage: Those Gay Celebs Opposed to Gay Marriage In Full

On Channel 4 News on Thursday, Sharon Jones of Cunts For Marriage made much play of how "plenty of lesbian and gay people" had signed her petition for inequality, discrimination and homophobic bigotry.
Jon Snow asked her how many, but she couldn't say - because she couldn't know and had probably just made it up.
There are probably a million or three lesbians and gay men in the UK, so it's not impossible that some have signed up to be denied their rights.
Jones also mentioned "those who have spoken publicly in support of this petition".
Which got me wondering about those gay celebrities and public figures who have come out and spoken out against gay marriage.
Here's that list in full.

1. Christopher Biggins.
2. Julie Bindel.
3. Brian Sewell.
4. David Coburn, cunt from UKIP.
5. Err, that's it.

Hardly a stellar list, is it?
And, as you can see, they are all bigots or barking or both. 
Well done.

PS The Independent's Diary has claimed Gilbert & George are opposed to gay marriage - but the quote they used to illustrate this doesn't really back this up.
Gilbert: "Who wants to be married in a church? Not us in a million years; we wouldn't go near one... For us it is very simple; our motto is 'Burn religion'."
Perhaps they are opposed full stop - but Gilbert is only saying here they don't want one.

Equal Marriage: Heated Debates

Conor Marron from Coalition For Equal Marriage vs the beyond evil Sharon Jones from Cunts For Marriage.
Think it's safe to say Conor wins this one.

Update: Newsnight hosted an embarrassing bunfight - poor show Channel 4.
The subject wasn't brought up on Question Time tonight - presumably the producers thought they'd "done that" last week.
And who could top Will "Nice But Dim" Young?
It was the hot topic on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze this week.
Sadly, Melanie Phillips was away.
The highlight?
Michael Portillo: ‘Ben, can you confirm that one man cannot impregnate another man and bring about a child?’
Ben Summerskill: ‘I’m surprised you need to ask that question, Michael.’
Michael Portillo: ‘Help me out with the answer.’
Ben Summerskill: ‘I’ll assist you. It’s why you have no children, Michael.'

Sunday Express: Gay Panic (Continued)

"SCHOOLS will be forced to teach children as young as five the importance of gay marriage.
"Teachers who refuse because of their religious beliefs could face disciplinary action..."

Sunday Express.

They will!!?
Who told you this?
Ah, a Tory MP, Peter Bone, a very vocal supporter of the bigots at Coalition For Marriage.
He's part of the far-right Conservative cabal - based around the Cornerstone Group * - who are unbelievably opposed to letting perverts marry
Bone can always be relied on a for a mean-spirited anti-gay quote.
He tells the Express;
"If marriage is redefined, schools will have no choice but to give children equivalent teaching on same-sex marriage, even those of a very young age.
“Parents who object will be treated as bigots and outcasts.
“And what of the teachers who object to teaching about same sex marriage. Will they face disciplinary action?"
Which is a such a work of ridiculous scaremongering fiction one wonders why he stopped there?
Why not tell the Express that teachers will be forced to make little kiddies watch hardcore gay porn - on pain of death?
Oh, and by the way Coalition For Marriage, only 36,000 people have signed your online petition against gay marriage.
That's PATHETIC!

* There's another bobbins group of bigots, Christians In Parliament, who've just published a report on the persecution of those poor little Christian folk. *makes sad face*

Coalition For Marriage: Please Support This Noble Cause

Can I urge all regular viewers to sign this petition?
May I also urge that no-one signs the petition under a childish scatalogical pseudonym, eg The Pope Dines On Choirboys' Cocks, as I have just tried to do in a moment of madness.

Update: There is now a Coalition For Equal Marriage petition and rinky dink website.