I have had to put up with insults all my life from those who oppose equal marriage, or civil partnerships, or decriminalisation of homosexuality or indeed simply oppose the removal of their ability to discriminate on the basis of my sexuality. It's a bit rich to hear them now whine when they are on the receiving end.

Dry your eyes.

Ahh - the dishonesty of the radicalised.

That is already how it is done in NI. The Civil part of the marriage (or legal part) has to be carried out without the trappings of religion. The couple and their witnesses either go to a registry office or if they are also having a religious wedding have to leave the service to an annex or whatever to sign the registry in front of the witnesses and a registrar (many ministers are registrars). The actual religious wedding ceremony confers no legal weight.

In England it is different because of the established church problem - but we do not have that.

One results in a civil partnership the other results in a civil wedding.

Maybe politicians should take a leaf out of the cardinals book and boycott events where leaders of organisations which covered up institutionalised child abuse attend. As for the cardinal's boycott - I am sure he wasn't missed.

erm.... Yes we do.

Cynthia dear,

"Christians should not be referred to as "weirdos" in the Belfast Telegraph."

If that is the case then should I be referred to as unnatural, unhealthy and unequal.

Maybe it is alight for you to refer to me in derogatory terms because I am not as natural, healthy or equal to you. I realise that you would scrape me off your shoe if you were to encounter me because you are so righteous and have Pascals Wager (sorry your truth) to fall back on.

"My Heavenly Father says that is not the way. Follow him" as you do by calling people unnatural. He's not such a great role model the way you present him.

In the Belfast Telegraph I have been called deviant, perverted, disordered, evil etc etc and likened to paedophiles, zoophiles, necrophiliacs and worse but describing you as a wierdo gets your back up. Where were you when I was being called names ? - oh yes you were saying "yes how disgusting they are" but say one word about your precious religion and you are up in arms.

Reminds me of the old adage from a mystic book of yore (not Lord of the Rings though it has some sagely advice) - people in glass houses or you could go for pride comes before a fall.

btw I would relish being called a wierdo - there is a certain street cred to it and as pastie Londonderry keeps telling me I do like strange flesh (not really ever been sure what that means but heyho)

I'd better stop now as I will have to have another glass of wine (more deviancy I know) if I hang here much longer.

Last word, if you don't want to be insulted then it's probably best not to be going around insulting people. You will find that if you are polite and respectful to people then they will reciprocate. I think it goes along the lines of treat other people as you would wish to be treated - it's all in a big book of stuff you should try reading sometime.

Hi OX, I have a wordpress account and an intense debate account and depending what machine I am on it logs me into one or the other so golfie98 and golfieni are both me.

There are some financial differences around pensions and inheritance taxes but the glaring difference is that in Northern Ireland a couple in a civil partnership cannot adopt a child or jointly adopt a child where one is the biological parent. A single person can adopt and married people can adopt but as the laws were written to exclude everyone who was not married or single it spitefully left out the only other group (civil partners). The DUP wrote that bit in the hope (and turned out correct) that no one would notice until after it was signed into law. Therein leaves the other problem with civil partners v's marriage - the DUP and their supporters can use the different terminology to create discriminatory legislation, if we were all equally married they could not put a ciggie paper between us.

There is also the elevated status accorded to marriage by some which is not accorded to civil partners as it is considered by many as second class, more akin to a common law marriage or not really married.

I do not wish to denigrate anyone's Civil Partnership and to many it may be the right choice (which is why I support Civil partnerships for opposite sex couples too if they prefer it) but legally and especially in NI they are not legally comparable and the differences leave us open to further discrimination by the legislature which is incapable of seeing past the end of their scripture.

I thought marriage was protecting each other - didn't realise women were meant to be in a subservient role. You live and learn,

Makes a change from what he usually sprays his screen with when typing his posts :)

perhaps that explains the woeful keyboard skills he sometimes demonstrates.