Sun 20 Jan 2013 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Garth McVicar A campaigner for "sensible sentencing" has told the Marriage Equality select committee that allowing same sex couples to legally marry will lead to a rise in crime in this country. Amongst the 20,000 submissions to the marriage equality select committee considering Louisa Wall's Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill is one from the Sensible Sentencing Trust in which its leader, Garth McVicar says "The marriage amendment bill will not benefit society at all and will ultimately have detremetal (sic) effect on crime at all levels." McVicar has tried to convince the committee that same-sex marriage is part of a continuing erosion of moral values. "The bill represents a further decay and erosion of the traditional family that society has been founded on." McVicar, who is not responding to interest in his comments, does not give any proof of his claim and gay equality campaigner and Greens MP Kevin Hague, who sits on the committee, says he knows of no research or data which links same-sex marriage and rising crime rates. He says he is sure that the Sensible Sentencing Trust's submission, which he told GayNZ.com Daily News is "absurd," is actually based on anti-gay prejudice.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Sunday, 20th January 2013 - 12:11pm