Gay marriage upheaval is worth it

In response to Dr Owen Gallagher (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 17), yes, the British government now realises that same-sex marriage will require a massive rewrite of legislation, dating back to 1285, but that is a good thing, as that was 729 years ago.

Modern marriage promotes equal rights between partners (gay or straight), dowries are a thing of the past, either parent can be the main breadwinner or carer, and women are no longer chattel.

I’m not sure what newspaper or source Dr Gallagher has read, that claims the majority of British people are against gay marriage. Taking the latest YouGov results from last year, support was 55%. And before you cry ‘but that’s a liberal/gay positive source’, people polled were supporters of all parties, including of UKIP and the BNP, which are firmly against same-sex unions. These results are freely available online (yougov.co.uk, government sources and all newspaper archives).