Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price has claimed she is a supporter of the LGB Alliance – despite her belief that gay people should not be allowed to get married.
The heterosexual Conservative politician took to Twitter declare her support for the group, which campaigns to exclude transgender people from the LGBT+ community while claiming to represent lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
Jackie Doyle-Price, who thinks lesbians shouldn’t get married, claims to oppose lesbophobia.
Doyle-Price, the MP for Thurrock, wrote: “I am proud to stand with LGB Alliance to fight for women and against lesbophobia and misogyny. Keep up the good work.
“I didn’t vote for the [Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013] because I didn’t like it. I was always in favour of equal rights for same-sex couples but not in the way it was done.”
It would be surprising for Doyle-Price to support any group which genuinely supports the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, given her own continued opposition to same-sex marriage.
Doyle-Price voted against equal marriage in England and Wales in 2013, arguing that affording basic rights to same-sex couples would in some way lead to untold discrimination against others.
She had claimed that allowing same-sex couples to get married “interferes in church affairs” because “for me marriage is a sacrament, it is not a creation of the state”. She added: “I was not sent to parliament to make bad law.”
The MP reaffirmed her beliefs in July 2019, when she abstained on extending same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland.
Tory MP insist it’s not hypocritical to support ‘LGB’ rights while opposing same-sex marriage.
Responding to a request for comment from PinkNews, Doyle-Price restated her belief that gay people should not be able to marry because she believes weddings should be confined to religious unions.
She said: “It is very simple. I don’t believe that civil unions should be styled as marriage. I believe that unions that take place outside church should be styled civil unions. That applies to mixed sex and same sex unions. I believe marriage is a sacrament and is defined by the church and not the state. On that basis, I didn’t like the legislation.”
Of course, confining weddings to the church would be tantamount to banning gay people from accessing them, given nearly all of the UK’s major religious denominations continue to ban same-sex marriage.
In England and Wales, same-sex marriage is currently only permitted in churches and synagogues that will allow it, which at the moment includes the Quaker and Unitarian churches, as well as Liberal and Reform synagogues, and most Masorti synagogues.
Asked how she could possible support an “LGB” group while opposing the rights of LGB people, Doyle-Price claimed that she has “always supported equality for same-sex couples” and insisted that the matter was “a debate which has passed”.
When asked specifically if she personally believed same-sex couples should have the right to marry, Doyle-Price reiterated: “It isn’t for the state to tell churches what to do. It is for those who are members of that church. It is for the state to ensure equality before the law. That is what we have done.”
Doyle-Price added that she was “more than happy” to attend any same-sex wedding wherever it takes place, adding: “I am pleased to have been to a good few.”
The LGB Alliance did not immediately return a request for comment on whether they would accept support from an MP who continues to oppose same-sex marriage.
LGB Alliance are not exactly enthusiastic about rights for lesbians, gays or bisexual people.
It wouldn’t be the first time the group has been associated with discrimination against gay people.
Last week, the LGB Alliance celebrated the decision to scrap an LGBT+ inclusive education resource in Warwickshire as “excellent news”.
The campaign against the resource was led by the Christian Institute, an anti-LGBT+ group which supported Section 28 and has lobbied against same-sex marriage, discrimination protections for LGBT+ people, same-sex adoption and inclusive education.
One of the LGB Alliance’s co-founders, Malcolm Clark, said in January 2020 that there shouldn’t be LGBT+ clubs in schools because of “predatory gay teachers“.
The group has also been branded homophobic for its stance on drag queens, who it says are “only appropriate for adults”.
In one tweet, LGB Alliance claimed: “The increasing used of drag queens in family/young children public events, and in some schools, is concerning.
“Drag is an important part of gay culture, but it is highly sexualised and only appropriate for adults. How can this help normalise being LGB to children?”