Another day, another Tory councillor in bother for comparing gay marriage to bestiality.
James Malliff, whose minders misguidedly let him use Twitter unsupervised, tweeted: “There is no doubt the PM is wrong on this issue. We may as well legalise marriage with animals, crude I concede but no apology.”
Plus ca change, you might think: how is this news? A whole parade of Tories, from the celebrated wiff-waff player downwards, have reacted similarly. (BoJo, admittedly 10 years ago, wrote that “if gay marriage was OK – and I was uncertain on the issue – then I saw no reason in principle why a union should not be consecrated between three men, as well as two men, or indeed three men and a dog.”)
Mr. Malliff then dug himself an even deeper hole by saying to the Mail
‘I was not intending to be offensive. It was much more a comment to try to establish where we draw the line on these things.
‘My comment (on Twitter) was there is no doubt the PM has got this wrong and you may as well legalise marriage with animals.
‘It sounds terrible now but it was not meant to be anti-gay. I am not anti-gay and I respect people’s views on this issue.
‘The comments were ill-conceived and crude but I want to know where we are going on this, it needs to be discussed.’
Okay, then. Here’s where we draw the line, Mr. Malliff. It’s a lovely straight (pun totally intended) line labelled “CONSENT.”
Marriage includes (indeed for some, legitimises) sex, and sex is for the consenting. Adult humans can consent, regardless of their gender. Animals and children can’t. This isn’t some weird societal taboo made specially for Tory councillors, where the world is divided into “things society lets me stick my willy into” (women, inflatable dolls, jars of poo if you’re a Lib Dem) and “things society for some totally incomprehensible reason doesn’t” (other men, animals), and where if we transfer items from List B to List A, we’re on the well-lubed slope to Gomorrah.
Marriage – and sex – are for consenting adults. No consent? Don’t do it. It’s dead easy, when you think about it. That so many people fail to understand such a basic concept is worrying.