Equal marriage will increase crime says lobbyist | Express Online

Garth McVicar of the Sensible Sentencing Trust has put forward a submission opposing equal marriage, saying that it will only bring an increase in crime.

In his submission to the Select Comittee, McVicar says that, ?The marriage amendment bill will not benefit society at all and will ultimately have detrimental effect on crime at all levels.?

?Furthermore, the bill represents a further decay and erosion of the traditional family that society has been founded on.?

McVicar believes that if passed, the bill could undo the positive steps taken to reduce crime and provide better treatment for victims.

Green MP Kevin Hague who sits on the Select Committee says, ?I try to read all of the submissions as respectfully as I can, because they are usually expressions of sincerely held views. i?m sure Mr McVicar is sincere. However, he offers no evidence whatsoever (and I don?t believe there is any) to support his belief.

?What?s more, if we try to break down his claim into the steps by which marriage equality will lead to increased crime at all levels, it immediately breaks down into laughable nonsense.

?His submission is just an assertion of belief, and one that hasn?t arisen through a rational process, but instead on a basis of prejudice and fear.?

Hague says that a submission based on fear isn?t unusual,?His kind of superstitious fear that marriage equality will (through some undefined process) lead to various bad outcomes is typical of many of the submissions against the Bill,? he says.

?In general they speak for a sector of society who hark back to a rigidly conformist view of society from the 1950s: families are nuclear, God-fearing, uniformly heterosexual and hierarchical, and they believe everybody should be governed by this narrow view.

?In contrast, those in favour of the Bill speak of a ?live and let live? society, in society is pluralist, and diversity and complexity are celebrated. In this way the debate over this Bill is actually a clash of world views.?

| Sarah Murphy

Source: http://www.gayexpress.co.nz/2013/01/equal-marriage-will-increase-crime-says-lobbyist/

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