In 1994 Carey voted in the House of Lords to defeat equality legislation that would have lowered the age of consent for homosexual men, from 21 years, to the same age as for heterosexuals (16 years) and again, in 1998 he voted against the equalisation of age of consent, at that time 18, to 16. Since his retirement, Carey has tolerated same-sex partnerships in secular law but continues to oppose same-sex marriage and church blessings of same-sex partnerships. In March 2006, he personally endorsed "with enthusiasm" a questionnaire to American bishops from what he described as "Lay Episcopalians who wish their Church to remain faithful to Orthodox Christianity" in relation to the controversy in that church over the ordination of an openly gay bishop. For this, he was chided by Frank Griswold, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, "for allowing himself to be used by others whose political ambition is to sow division".