Baroness Warsi's 'concern' over effect of gay marriage laws on religious groups She said she was still "on a journey" on the issue but when asked whether she now supported same-sex marriage she replied that she was not willing to give an answer that would "keep the crowd happy." Her comments carried by the PinkNews website, reopen the debate about protections for religious groups which fear being forced to conduct same-sex marriages against their beliefs under human rights laws. Questions have recently been asked about where churches or other groups groups which oppose gay marriage but share buildings with organisations which are in favour would stand legally. It stems from a u-turn last year by David Cameron who originally planned a blanket ban on gay weddings in churches to prevent those who object facing legal challenges. Instead the Same-Sex Marriage Act contains a so-called "quadruple lock" of protections. But campaign groups such as the Coalition for Marriage believe they will not stand up to a challenge at the European Court of Human Rights. It emerged last December that Lady Warsi had written to Maria Miller, the Culture Secretary, voicing concern about "unintended consequences" of the decision. But she told the audience that even by the time the bill was being passed earlier this year, there remained "lots of technical issues" which she felt were unresolved. She defended her decision to abstain, despite seemingly signalling she might support it, saying: "I was clear in terms of where my position was on equal marriage. I felt that there were concerns that I had about how faith communities and the right of faith communities to have their beliefs protected. Without kind of undoing the whole debate again, there were a number of exchanges between myself and various other government departments. She singled out a clause protecting the Church of England from legal action by specifically requiring a vote in Synod before it could ever consider carrying out same-sex weddings. She said this did nothing for smaller religious groups such as independent churches, mosques or temples. "There are many religions who don't have those structures," she said. There are many, many religions where you wouldn't be able to find an authorising body; there are many religious institutions to which you have community centres attached which are part of the religious institution but actually can also be stand-alone centres. So there were lots of technical issues ... I don't want to reopen the debate you know this is on record and I need to be incredibly careful in terms of what I do say in terms of reopening the debate, but in the end I felt that I was not in a position where I could be satisfied to be able to vote for the bill. She added that she had faced calls from religious groups to vote against the bill but felt that because she is an unelected peer she did not have a "mandate" to go against what she acknowledged was the will of the Commons. "It would have been wrong for me to have voted against it, and in those circumstances I took a decision to abstain," she said. Her approach mirrors that taken by some Church of England bishops who abstained in Lords votes despite speaking against the redefinition of marriage. Benjamin Cohen, publisher of PinkNews, said: "What was so refreshing about Baroness Warsi's speech and her comments afterwards was her honesty and plain speaking. She reflected the position that many people of faith are in when it comes to sexuality, how to balance her religious view points with her belief in human rights and individual freedom. By expressing that she is on a 'journey' when it comes to gay rights, she demonstrated that unlike some, she is open to alter her views, no different really from a prime minister who in the past voted against gay rights and later introduced same-sex marriage.