Cardiff played host to Wales’ only consultation event for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people about same-sex marriage yesterday, with around 50 people attending to give their views, reported WalesOnline.co.uk.
The event, held at the City United Reform Church in Windsor Place, was organised by the LGBT Excellence Centre which is based in Cardiff, and was designed to give the LGBT community an opportunity to respond to UK Government’s proposals on allowing gay marriage.
The key note speaker at yesterday’s event, Monmouthshire vicar the Reverend Andrew Morton, said he believed the Government’s failure to include religious institutions in its consultation was “profoundly wrong”.
Rev Morton, who is currently vicar of Llangybi, announced in March that he would be stepping down this summer following statements from a number of senior clerics on same-sex relationships with which he “profoundly disagreed”.
During his speech yesterday, he said his resignation was the “only honourable thing to do”.
Rev Morton said that while some argued marriage was about having children, he believed marriage was about the nurture of life “whether it’s from partner to partner, or parent to child”.
Other speakers at yesterday’s event included Labour assembly member Vaughan Gething, Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle and Welsh Conservative Mohammad Asghar.
Federico Podeschi, chief executive of the LGBT Excellence Centre, said: “There are quite a lot of issues that are reported to us through our service users, and although the consultation is quite comprehensive, we want to highlight those specific issues.”
