Outraged members of the gay community are to protest outside York Minster cathedral today – in opposition to the comments by the city's Archbishop, Dr John Sentamu.
Due to take place at 1pm today, the event has been backed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
It comes after Sentamu critiqued Prime Minister David Cameron's push for gay equality – arguing that
the traditional values of marriage being between a man and a woman
cannot
simply be "changed overnight".
“I don’t think it is the role of the state
to define what marriage is,” he said. “It is set in tradition and
history and you can’t just [change it] overnight, no matter how powerful
you are."
The rally has been organised by the University of York's LGBT group, who wrote an open letter explaining their reasoning.
It said: "Whilst the Archbishop may say that it is not the place of
the government to define what marriage is, I would argue that it is the
state's responsibility to ensure that all UK citizens can enjoy equal
rights regardless of their sexual orientation."
According to the BBC, the Archbishop's office said it had no comment to make.
The government will open a consultation on the issue of same-sex marriages in March.
