Mail columnist Peter Hitchens: ‘I regret getting involved’ in same-sex marriage debate

Mail on Sunday’s Peter Hitchens, previously a vocal opponent of equal marriage, has said now that he regrets speaking out.

In a new filmed interview with Owen Jones, the right-wing columnist said that actually it’s the introduction of “no-fault divorce” in the 1960s that he has a big issue with.

The real blow struck in marriage was struck in all major western societies in the 1960s by the introduction of what was in effect no-fault divorce.

“There has been absolutely no suggestion since the 1960s, in any major political party, that that form of divorce was a mistake,” he argued, saying when asked that same-sex marriage is not that big of an issue: “It’s a consequence of the collapse of heterosexual marriage, and I regret now getting involved in the argument about same-sex marriage, because it was a Stalingrad, a diversion.

“Why is one worrying about a few thousand people who want to have same-sex marriages, without being at all concerned about the collapse of heterosexual marriage, which involves millions of people, and millions of children?”

In 2009, Hitchens insisted on putting the word ‘gays’ in inverted commas, complaining: “If I never again had to read or write a word about homosexuals, I would be very happy. I really don’t want to know what other people do in their bedrooms… We are forced to say that we think homosexuality is a good thing, that homosexual couples are equal in all ways to heterosexual married couples.”

Watch his full chat with Owen Jones below: