Gay Norfolk

Last week, the Lib Dem leader wrote a formal letter of apology to the Archbishop of Canterbury According to the Independent, Nick Clegg s former director of strategy disagrees with the decision of his former boss to apologise for appearing to brand equal marriage opponents as bigots . Last week, the Lib Dem leader wrote a formal letter of apology to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster over claims he was prepared to use the word in a speech at an LGBT reception that took place earlier this month in central London. Peter Bone, the anti-equal marriage Conservative MP for Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, had called on Mr Clegg to apologise or resign over the row.

In a letter addressed to both of the Anglican and Catholic leaders, Mr Clegg wrote: Those extracts were neither written or approved by me. They do not represent my views, which is why they were subsequently withdrawn. While I am a committed advocate of equal marriage, I would never refer to people who oppose it in this way .

Richard Reeves, until this summer Nick Clegg s director of strategy who helped draw up the coalition s equal marriage proposals, wrote in the New Statesman: In the end, the only reason to deny a gay couple the right to marry is a belief that their relationship is in some way inferior to a heterosexual one. That s bigotry. Mr Reeves added: I have no doubt that the opponents of same-sex marriages will be seen, in fairly short historical order, in the same light as those who opposed mixed-race marriages.

He also said the government needed to stand up to the forces of conservatism .

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