SUPPORTERS of equal marriage have been dubbed "equality Nazis" by Ukip's MEP for Scotland David Coburn, who said it amounted to "rubbing people's noses in the dirt".
Mr Coburn, who is gay, has argued in the past that legalising same-sex marriage provokes homophobia in the wider community, but his comments have now gone much further. Apart from referring to "equality Nazis" he is quoted as saying the issue only matters to "some queen who wants to dress up in a bridal frock and dance up the aisle to the Village People".
Scotland's only Ukip parliamentarian reportedly told the Huffington Post that same-sex marriage was "false b******s" that "makes a mockery of the holy sacrament of marriage".
He said: "What you're doing with the gay marriage issue is you're rubbing people's noses in the dirt."
"But when you go across the road to pick a fight with someone of faith, that's not got anything to do with it, that's the equality Nazis trying to give Christianity a jolly good kicking. You know it, I know it, we all know it - it's false b******s, the lot of it."
Tim Hopkins of the Equality Network said: "David Coburn's thoughtless comparison of equality campaigners with Nazis is an insult to that regime's victims. His nasty comments about couples who are currently looking forward to their same-sex wedding day reinforce the impression that he simply doesn't care who he offends."
The SNP MSP Marco Biagi said: "It is incredibly offensive comments like these which go some way to showing why the latest poll has support for Ukip at just two per cent in Scotland - and confirms why it is so dangerous for the Westminster parties to lurch to the right in order to pander to Ukip's extreme agenda."
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