A CONSERVATIVE MSP who voted against gay marriage has told how he congratulated his party's leader Ruth Davidson when she announced her engagement to her partner Jen Wilson.
Alex Johnstone acknowledged that he voted against the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill when it reached its final stage in Holyrood in February 2014, but said as a democrat he recognised the law.
“I congratulated Ruth on this,” he told The National. “It was my job when the legislation was going through to question it every step of the way. But now that the law has been changed, and there is no way back, I have no issues going forward.”
The MSP for North East Scotland added: “I support the democratically arrived-at decision of parliament, even though I voted the other way in the vote.”
Johnstone gave his views after the newly elected fellow Tory MSP Jeremy Balfour said “his understanding of the Bible is that marriage is between one man and one woman”.
Balfour spoke out after Davidson announced she had proposed to her partner Wilson in Paris and planned to marry.
Tweeting a picture of the engagement ring, Davidson said: “Delighted Jen said yes.”
Balfour told the Sunday Herald yesterday: “The Bible is for me the book that I take guidance from in how I should live my life. My interpretation of the Bible is that marriage is between a man and a woman. Clearly other people hold different views on that, and clearly other people have different interpretation of that, but my understanding of the Bible is that marriage is between one man and one woman.”
The Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill was passed by 105 to 18 in a free vote, not tied to a party position enforced by whips.
Nicola Sturgeon and Patrick Harvie were witnesses at one of Scotland’s first gay weddings.
The First Minister and Scottish Greens leader took the key roles at the marriage ceremony of lesbian couple Susan and Gerrie Douglas-Scott in Glasgow on the evening of December 31, 2014.
The Bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament despite opposition from Scotland’s two main churches, the Catholic Church and Church of Scotland.
Balfour is a former lobbyist for the Evangelical Alliance who worked for the group at the outset of devolution when it fought the repeal of Section 28, the law which banned “the promotion” of homosexuality in schools, effectively restricting pupils’ sex education.
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