Gay marriage legalised in the UK

This month is all about LBGT history, so what better time is there to literally make history? “The marriage bill” was passed a few days ago 400 votes to 175, which while not perfect is still the good majority. It’s caused great discontent amongst the conservatives, and I’ve heard the phrase “you can oppose same sex marriage and not be homophobic” and while I’d agree it’s not quite on par with hate crime, someone made the good point that many white people who supported the apartheid didn’t consider themselves to be racist.

As a Christian something I’ve been mildly concerned about is those churches who oppose same sex marriage, that they’ll be vilianised. While I fully support same sex marriage, and I imagine my parish priest will be more than happy to officiate the services, it is almost undeniable that the Bible is against homosexuality. While liberal churches like my own take a more modern view of such things, I don’t think it means a witch hunt should be started on those Christians who are more traditional. I’m not saying its right to be homophobic, but I don’t think anyone member of the church should be pressured into doing something against their beliefs. I hope in time the more conservative churches will change their views though.

Part of the bill is that:

 (1)A person may not be compelled to—

(a)undertake an opt-in activity, or

(b)refrain from undertaking an opt-out activity.

(2)A person may not be compelled—

(a)to conduct a relevant marriage,

(b)to be present at, carry out, or otherwise participate in, a relevant marriage, or

(c)to consent to a relevant marriage being conducted, where the reason for the person not doing that thing is that the relevant marriage concerns a same sex couple.

This means that churches will be under less legal pressure than they would have otherwise, which I think is pretty nifty, if boringly worded  (at least I think that’s what it means, someone please correct me asap if I’m hideously wrong).

So, it will take a while for all the relevant changes to be made, but keep your eyes peeled for some glorious LBGT weddings :D

Lots of love,

Todostrieb 

So what does marriage actually mean?

I share Todostrieb's opinion on marriage as a whole; I know more ex-married people than I do married people, my parents should be included in this statistic, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get married for a number of reasons, chief among them has to be the lack of boyfriend to propose to (me). Despite that, I'm always one for a party, and what else is a wedding if not the excuse to get drunk and/or laid? As such, I clearly do not need to point out that I am completely for gay marriage, or as I like to call it, marriage. I found this pie chart, which kind of weighs up the pros and cons quite nicely.

It really is that simple.

When the UK legalised Civil Partnerships for same-sex couples, I was probably too young to have had an opinion - at least, an opinion which meant anything. For those of you who don't know what a Civil Partnership means, it's essentially exactly the same as marriage in all but name, and you can only have one if you're gay. To any poor heterosexual people out there (I'm looking at Miu), as it stands you can only get married or you can not get married, if you'd rather have a civil partnership because it sounds less binding, tough.

That's the problem I have with marriage legislation in this country at the moment. While a Civil Partnership and a Marriage are exactly the same thing in all but name (both give you the same rights in the eye of the law, supposedly), one sounds less impressive than the other, and the more impressive sounding one is also better understood than the other. If Miu and her boyfriend were to spontaneously announce "We're getting married!", then everybody would celebrate and throw a party because marriage is a universally understood term. If I were to announce that my currently non-existent boyfriend and I are "getting partnered"... I can just picture the underwhelming response and the shy "what the fuck does that mean" response that is bound to meet us.

Told you so.

And so we've arrived in a situation where the terms Civil Partnership and Marriage have been clouded by the public's ignorance of their meaning, and who they're for. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the big cheeses in Government call something like marriage one thing for LGBTQ people and another for everybody else, then they will never be truly equal, and that is why marriage should become legal for gay people and civil partnerships become available to straight people, if they want them. I know there's a whole other debate about religion and gay marriage which Mel went into quite nicely - I must admit that some of the things coming out of some religious people's mouths (or is that arses?) have been frankly outrageous, but I suppose that it just highlights the blatant homophobia which runs through parts of the church. What they can't seem to understand is that what the government is proposing is that all civil venues (like registry offices etc) must perform a gay wedding if called upon to do so; religious venues do not. That's not redefining marriage, nor is it damaging marriage - if I remember correctly, Henry VIII created the Church of England to enable him to divorce one of his many wives, unless I'm seriously old-fashioned, divorce seems more damaging to the 'institute' of marriage than allowing more people to actually get married....

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant. I will finish by saying that I have to admit that a Tory-led government were the last people I expected to hold a consultation on the subject, let alone try and legalise equal marriage before the next election, so even if they fail in everything else (tuition fees, anybody?), I suppose I'll have some sympathy for Cameron and Clegg when they get kicked out of Downing Street in May 2015.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm helping my mum move to Germany next week, so I won't be around to post next Friday - if any of you lovely people would like to submit something to post in my place, please feel free to do so!
Rory