Their arguments are the same old claims, I worry about what society the CSP thinks it lives in.

Heterosexual marriage is still quite popular and enjoys economic, social and political support in this State. I don’t think civil partnership will challenge this too profoundly. So please explain *how* my rights to civil partnership affect your right to marriage?

The CSP’s view is schizophrenic about children and (at the heart) still operates a dated, naive view about the best interests of the child. Actually the CSP claim serves to help sever the link between marriage and children.

The CSPs view seems to be based on ideological reasoning rather than a legal stance. Children of single parents or same-sex parents are not disadvantaged *as children* under the law, their families are disdvantaged where the norms of marriage impinge. So the CSP logic actually suggests children should be reared in a marital home: thus that logic suggests that everyone should marry, doesn’t it?
It also disappoints me that the CSP claims to be in favour of child protection but does not listen to children. Those on the Right claims the parents know best, no matter what, and that has led to the collusion of some conservatives with abusive parents. So start listening to children, and you might find it more difficult to be so ideological about family practices.

CSP’s view of gays as a cost centre when it comes to civil partnership in a time of recession are a blinkered interpretation of how much LGBT people contribution to the country for little or no return to themselves.