Posted in: International Daily News By GayNZ.com Daily News staff - 3rd August 2009
The United Kingdom arm of the Quakers, a highly influential Christian religious group, say full-fledged marriage equality should be bestowed upon gay and lesbian families.
The UK Quakers are calling on the British government to step up the "civil unions" status available to gay and lesbian families to full-fledged marriage equality.
The say they are prepared to amend their understanding of Scripture, and the church laws that define the practical applications of their faith, in a manner that allows for the full dignity and equality of gay and lesbian individuals and their families.
Civil partnerships have been legal in England since 2004, and are designed to provide all the same legal rights and protections as marriage. But, as the Quakers noted, civil partnerships do not include the ability of same-sex couples to be wed in religious ceremonies.
The Quakers in New Zealand have consistently backed campaigns for equal legal rights for glbt people and were the first religious group to publicly back the campaign for Homosexual Law Reform in the early 1980s.
Related links:
The decision of Yearly Meeting Gathering 2009 to treat same sex marriages in the same way as marriages between straight couple has gained a lot of press coverage. Quakers in Britain
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