Mar 21 - 3,490 Responses To Equal Marriage Command Paper – Government Now Begins Next Stage In Consultation
The Government has received 3,490 responses to its Command Paper for Consultation on Equal Marriage. The responses come from multi-signatory groups, by means of petitions and from individuals.
The Government says that the next stage of its consultative process is to engage with representative groups and many of the individuals who responded to the Command Paper.
The Command Paper, which was published in December of last year, on the possibility of legalising civil marriage between same sex couples attracted significant public interest and comment across our community and the Government explains that it now wishes to pursue in further detail direct interaction with various groups and individuals on representations made to the Command Paper. The standard time frame of two weeks, which is the norm for Command Papers, was later extended to three weeks due to the Christmas break and the extent of public interest in this matter.
An Inter-Ministerial Committee has now been established to listen to the views of the various groups and many of the individuals who expressed a view on this subject.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee will comprise: Gilbert Licudi, Samantha Sacramento, Neil Costa and Albert Isola.
In line with a commitment made in last year’s GSLP/Liberal Manifesto, the Committee will report its findings back to Cabinet by the June of this year.
The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: "This is an issue which has raised controversy in some sections of our Community and which deserves our careful consideration as a Government so that we may fully understand the concerns of people on all sides of the arguments. We want to respectfully consider the positions which have been put to us in writing on this subject and will do so with a cross section of the Cabinet."
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