Draft article: Gay Marriage

Below is my first draft of the gay marriage I intend to run as one of my main stories. Obviously this is a topical story at the moment following the comments from government about the law change and the opposing views that followed from the church. I think that covering this story is important for my target audience because my primary target audience are liberal young people who want to read about issues that could effect them and those they know. In terms of specifically representing my target audience I intend to interview young Cornish people (gay and straight) concerning their views on the topic along with a local religious figure. This represents the target audience because the age of the interviewees will show them the publication is for them while the fact I have given it a local slant will draw more interest as a lot of young Cornish people do not leave the Duchy that often and therefore have little interest in stories from 'up country.' 


In interestingly, the local press in Cornwall have not picked up on this story. I think this supports theories that homosexual representation in a positive way, or at all in Cornwall is poor. As Queer theorist Michael Warner states: "Social reflection carried out in such a manner tends to be creative, fragmentary, and defensive, and leaves us perpetually at a disadvantage. The dawning realization that themes of homophobia and heterosexism may be read in almost any document of our culture means that we are only beginning to have an idea of how widespread those institutions and accounts are.” (David Halperinm, 1997). 


Would like to challenge this in my local paper because I think there is a gap in the market for a publication that is more liberal and suited a modern inclusive age. 


Here is the draft story (I researched this story through listening to bulletins and reading other articles on the matter):  


FOLLOWING heating comments from the Archbishop of Canterbury the government has planned to launch a 12 week consultation on allowing gay couples to marry. Civil partnerships, which were introduced in 2005, already give gay couples similar legal rights to that of married couples. However, both the government and gay couples feel that they should be legally allowed to marry and declare vows of commitment to each other. 

The Home Office’s Consultation Paper proposes:

1. To allow marriage to happen between same-sex couples in a registry office
2. To retain civil partnerships for same-sex couples and allow couples already in a civil partnership to convert it into a marriage
3. To allow people to legally change their gender and stay married
4. To maintain the legal ban on same-sex couples marrying in a religious service

Liberal Democrat Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone said: "We're not looking at changing religious marriage, even for those that might wish to do it. I understand the liberal Jews, the Quakers and some unitarian churches would like it, but that's not in the sight of this consultation."

Labour welcomed the proposals but said they did not go far enough. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Religious marriages are a matter for each church and denomination, not for the government. But equally, the government should go further than they currently plan.

In a letter being read in 2,500 parish churches, the Church's two most senior archbishops say the change would reduce the significance of marriage.

The letter says Roman Catholics have a duty to make sure it does not happen.

The letter ends by telling Catholics they have a "duty to do all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations".


Continued on Page 2... 

The story on page two will have more of a local slant because I will begin with this interview I conducted with Joe Marston, a young gay man who lives in Bodmin, concerning his views on the subject. For my final draft I will turn this into prose, as opposed to leaving it as Q&A because even though I have observed both styles in publications like The Cornish Guardian my other style models e.g. The Guardian, The Independent would not use this style.


I will lead into this part of the article as follows:


The Cloud spoke to Joe Marston, a 18 year old gay man from Bodmin, to find out his views on the issue. When asked his views on gay marriage in the UK he said: 


Interview with Joe Mastern (Wednesday 14th March 2012 - 2pm)


Question 1: What are your views on gay marriage in the UK?

Joe: I think it is a really complicated situation. On the one hand I believe that everyone gay or straight should have the right to get married because we now live in an equal society and I do not think the current ‘civil partnership’ is good enough because there are fundamental differences between this and marriage.

I think what a lot of people are over looking is the fact that ‘marriage’ is a word that does not belong to a religion, it simply means a union between two people. Taking marriage to mean this, I think that everyone gay or straight should be able to get married.

Where I think the true debate lies, is with marriage in the Christian sense because whether you like it or not the bible clearly condemns homosexuality. Therefore forcing the church to perform gay marriage will be going against part of that faith and I can completely understand why the Church would not want to do this.

When asked if he himself intended to tie the knot if laws were change Marden said: 


Question 2: Do you plan on getting married? 

Personally, I would not like to get married in a church or enter into the Christian institution of marriage because I feel that Christianity and all other faiths for that matter do not support or agree with homosexuality. Therefore, why would I want to be a part of something that condemns me?

I am completely happy with who I am and completely happy being an atheist, therefore this issue does not effect me directly. Would I like gay civil partnerships to have the same ‘weight’ and respect as ‘traditional marriage’? Yes, definitely. Would I like to married in a Church and like to see the church forced into this? No, why should the government change the ‘rules’ of religion. People, gay or straight, have the right to opt out of the church if they feel it is out dated in terms of its beliefs concerning women, homosexuals etc.

However, having said that, I do have many friends who are gay and Christian who would like to be excepted by their church and married in the eyes of their God so I do understand why this is a heated issue for them.

In short, I think that gay marriage should be allowed/made legal but no necessarily in the ‘religious’ sense. However, if the church do wish to change with the times then that is a fantastic step for equality but you will not see me rushing to be married in a church.

I do also think it is important to remember that it is great we can even debate this openly in  the UK because many countries still punish homosexuality with death. 


As a first draft I think this is starting to take shape because I have followed the basic rules of reporting (who, what, where, when and why) and have started to represent the needs of my target audience in terms of mode of address, language and interviewees. To improve this in my final draft I need to make the interview flow naturally as part of the story and bring in my second interview.


In terms of this story as a whole, I need to also get the images that best connote the content while representing the needs of my target audience.