A HANDFUL of demonstrators gathered under the gay pride flag flying outside Cheshire West and Chester Council’s city-based headquarters to protest at plans for equal marriages for homosexuals.
The rainbow flag was flying to mark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Month during February.
But it proved a focal point for supporters of the national organisation Coalition for Marriage who are upset at the Same Sex Couples Bill which was recently backed by MPs at second reading.
The Bishop of Chester, the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, is among those to have signed a national petition supporting the traditional concept of marriage.
Leaflets being handed out were headed ‘Chester for Marriage’.
The introduction reads: “Politicians at Westminster want to rewrite the meaning of marriage to make it ‘genderless’. But kids need a mum and a dad. Did you know all the rights of marriage are already available to homosexuals through civil partnerships?
“The politicians don’t own marriage and they have no right to change it. This wasn’t in any of the main manifestos before the last election and they’re ignoring well over 600,000 people who’ve signed a petition against the plans.”
Chester’s Tory MP Stephen Mosley, whose office is just yards from where the protest took place, is an ‘enthusiastic’ supporter of gay marriage.
He recently told fellow Conservatives: “If two people want to get married I’ve got no problems with that and no problems with the state recognising that either.”
