Largest Response Ever to Same-Sex Marriage Consultation in Scotland

The Scottish government's consultation on bringing in same-sex marriage has had about 50,000 responses – one of the biggest reactions to a consultation Scotland has ever seen.

The SNP are in favour of the change, but big religious organisations such as the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church oppose it.

Submissions to the 14-week consultation close at midnight on Friday.

Same-sex couples in Scotland, as in the rest of the UK, currently have the option to enter into civil partnerships. The SNP promised in its manifesto to consult on new legislation allowing gay marriages in churches.

In the consultation document, the government made it very clear that no religious organisation would be forced to hold same-sex weddings. However, perhaps predictably, the major churches vigorously opposed it, urging their congregations to submit negative responses to the consultation.

At the same time, a "rainbow coalition" of organisations, including The Equality Network, Amnesty International, Unison and the Humanist Society of Scotland are among those campaigning for change.

Scotland's deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said all views would be listened to, but added that ministers "tended towards the initial view" that same-sex marriage should be introduced.

Author Christopher Brookmyre, the Humanist Society’s president in Scotland, said, rather pithily, I thought: "It has been cringe-inducing to witness the Bill's opponents scrambling desperately to come up with an example of how it would negatively affect anyone, other than to discomfit bigots."