The groom wore pink, and so did the other groom

Yesterday saw the introduction of a new law permitting the legal union of gay couples in the UK, together with a special civil ceremony that can be performed in the style of a wedding at any premises licensed to do so.

Good news you'd think, at last gay couples are afforded the same rights as hetrosexual couples in the UK in that they can be recognised in inheritence laws and also (for example) will be recognised as a partner if one of them is ill in hospital - too much evidence exists of one gay partner being unable to visit the other because on occasions hospitals will only allow close relatives at bedsides.

But much more important than hospital visiting rights is that its given the UK's Christian Fundementalists an opportunity to spew out their religious bigotory once again.

Use of the phrase "Christian Fundementalist" brings visions of terrorists with masked faces holding hostages or exploding themselves in hotel lobbys, but far more dangerous than these middle east christian fundementalists are our own home grown fundementalists.

They lurk everywhere in our communities, from the little old lady who runs the cake shop on the High Street and bakes those lovely fruit loaves, to the chap called Roger in accounts with the beige shirt and tie combo who is the first to "bless you" in the canteen every time you sneeze - these people are the new christian fundementalists and they are every bit as dangerous to our all embracing society as if they'd strapped ten pounds of semtex to their waist and were heading for a local train station.

Of course the BBC broadcast the news yesterday and its website message board was suddenly bombarded with vitriolic and spiteful messages of hate and intolorance from the sort of people that you'd normally think were completely harmless as they walk down your street in their Sunday best on their way to bother their god at 6pm every Sunday evening.

The tone of the messages changed towards the end of the day as the more normal citizens of the UK joined int he debate, but early on we had the opportunity to observe some real crackpots ...

this is so unbelievalbe only in a non religious country could you do this i believe that such things should have strong penalties what kind of thing is this to show little children, if the people want to be gay let them do so quietly they do not need to show everyone else

L, VILNIUS

Why stop at same-sex 'marriages'? What next? Why not eliminate the age of sexual consent and allow paediaphiles a back door to respectability.
This recent development suggest to me that the removal from the statute books of the offences that condemned Oscar Wilde was not an occasion for rejoicing.

W.S.Becket, Bangor. North Wales

God is most definately a God of love but also of righteous judgement. He made the law and told us how we were to live and conduct our lives and Jesus came to fulfil that law.. not to take one iota of it away. Jesus was emphatic about that. How could the man who came to offer salvation and be a propitiation for sin, then condone it.. he could not and does not.. he forgives our sins if we repent and change our ways. His love is a holy love which hates sin... but loves to show mercy to the sinner.
Barbara, Carlisle

The idea of civil partnership to protect those involved but, think it should be less like a marriage because is against the Bible's teaching. It is very difficult for my generation to accept it whatever form it takes.

Sue, Bourne

Homosexuallity is wrong and whether or not a few legal benefits are endowed on people who practice it, in a moral Christian country it should not be officially endorsed.

Mark Perryman, Maidstone, Kent

We need to have a debate on whether Gay people should be classified as mentally sick. They need help, we need more psychiatric hospitals to deal with this.
Thank you
David Lyons, Surrey

If the whole world was gay, the human race would die in one generation.
Sean McCullough, Barrow - in - Furness

I can only find examples of heterosexual relationships being encouraged in the Bible, such as the very first example of Adam and Eve. It is impossible to change God to suit Man's needs and wants.
Gwawr Esyllt, Llangefni

...and theres a load more good stuff like that, plus a reply to the last comment from Gwaar in Wales that her example of Adam and Eve is not really a good one as the ultimate extension of the Garden of Eden story must be that God encouraged incest as the only way that humans could have evolved from just two people is if they had sex with their children, or their siblings interbred.

Its a fine example of the teachings of the church, any church, brainwashing people into thinking inside strict boundaries in order to control them, it had to work that way several hundred years ago, it was the only way to control a largely lawless and leaderless population and also the only way to raise revenue, but such bigotory has no place in society today, and yet it is endemic in all religions.

For myself I like to look at church as an option, an option that I have yet to adopt for myself, and I look at churchgoers and those who start every sentence with the phrase "I am a christian" as people who have chosen that option as they feel a need to go and sing songs to something that they cannot see or touch but can only imagine in their own suggestive minds when told to do so by a man (or sometimes a woman) who likes to dress up a bit of a Sunday.

They speak of their God as being the creator of mankind in which case He also created gay people, they speak of their God as being benevolant and tolorant in which case He should not be annoyed or disturbed by gay people as his followers obviously are, and they claim that their God can talk to them and instruct them on how to live a good, caring and christian life, in which case then he really does need to have a bit of a hard word to some of them this Sunday, the day of his lads birthday (apparently).