Marriage is not about equality

Published on 05/08/2012 00:00

CONTRARY to Alyn Smith (Scotland on Sunday, 29 July) “as a tolerant nation we [Scotland] should” NOT “embrace equality in marriage”. Equality implies equalising affairs that are intrinsically the same but which, for whatever reason, are not being treated as such. Men and women are not equal in all respects, many of them important ones; and the same applies as appropriate to other groups.

If Alyn Smith has used instead the term “equity” then his plea would fall on far more fertile grounds. Equity suggests just and appropriate treatment; implying regard for the differences that are undeniable and paying attention to the all important context.

As far as I am concerned, a person can marry the dog, but should do so in a manner and place and within a system 
that does not find such an action offensive. If I have no right to offend him or her in a given matter, then reciprocally neither of them has the right to offend me in the same matter.

No-one has the right to barge into a church and demand that it changes its views to suit the bargee. Let such a person start their own church, or seek out one whose views they do share, or simply admit that equality in some matters is as foolish as placing on an equal footing the unsighted driver alongside the sighted in a standard F1 contest.

TGP Flinn, Garvald, East Lothian