OPPONENTS of same-sex marriage are disenfranchised because all the mainstream parties are in favour of the policy, a churchman has claimed.
The Rev David Robertson, director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity, called for a referendum on the issue.
He said: “Ten years ago none of the mainstream parties was advocating same-sex marriage, now it’s a given.”
He was speaking in a debate where Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie and the Greens’ Patrick Harvie took on religious critics of gay marriage.
Mr Rennie told the audience at Charlotte Chapel in Rose Street that politicians were guided by the voters.
He said: “If people were telling us what many of you have been telling us, we would not be forging ahead with this.”
Catholic writer Peter Williams claimed gay marriage could be the thin end of a wedge. He said: “If the state takes to itself the right to redefine marriage now, why should the state not have the right in five years to redefine it again?”