Wikipedia has revealed that it will "delete" a page related to the description of traditional marriage as being between a man and a woman.
In a published notification, the web-based encyclopedia said the decision to remove the miscellaneous page titled "User:UBX/onemanonewoman" came after a debate among a sub-group of editors.
The notification stated: "Consensus is quite clear, both numerically and in terms of strength of argument, that these templates for display on Wikipedia user pages - which broadly speaking express opposition to same-sex marriage - violate the guideline on userbox content restrictions because they are "inflammatory or divisive" and "propaganda [or] advocacy", as prohibited by that guideline.
"The "keep" side makes the argument that pro-same-sex-marriage userboxes would also need deleting for the same reasons, to which others reply that such userboxes are not similarly problematic because they do not express discriminatory intent. This question cannot be decided in the present discussion because such other userboxes have not been nominated for deletion here."
A userbox is a small coloured box that appears on an editor’s page to communicate information about them.
In response to the decision, The Christian Institute's Deputy Director for Public Affairs, Simon Calvert, said:
"Until five minutes ago the whole world believed marriage was between a man and a woman. You can’t just delete every reference to that reality.
“For Christians, marriage is particularly important since it is designed by God himself as a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his church. So faithful believers are always going to hold on to the true definition of marriage. They are entitled to be able to explain that belief without being cancelled by keyboard warriors.”
The Christian Insitute says that one Wikipedia administrator, 'Ad Orientem', has resigned over the issue, saying said that the decisions "represent an ugly tendency to condemn the views of others as outside the bounds of acceptable thought, never minding those views are held by the vast majority of people globally and the followers of most of the world’s major religious faiths”.