A lot of people I know have recently expressed surprise that same sex couples couldn’t already get married in the UK. A lot of them were under the impression that the introduction of civil partnerships was the introduction of same sex marriage. Ah, if only it was so easy…
The first obvious question is, if civil partnerships are just marriages by another name…what is the need for another name? Of course, the easy answer is they are not just marriages by another name. Contrary to popular belief, civil partnerships are legally different to marriages in bunch of ways. Firstly, civil partnerships cause a tonne of problems if you want to immigrate to another country. A lot of countries, such as Spain, recognise same sex marriages in their country, but do not recognise our civil partnerships as marriages.
There are also a lot of other differences, such as the lack of vows in civil partnerships (however cheesy marriage vows might be, they have serious legal implications). There are also no concepts of either consummation or adultery in civil partnerships, causing a whole load of other problems if you want to get divorced (oh, the joys of everlasting love until you discover he’s been sleeping with that nice chap from across the road).
There are also differences involving pensions, for which I’m going to direct you to this video, which explains this better than I ever could (and has Lego, and who doesn’t love Lego?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vT6I72W9SMM#!
And then there’s the fact that religious organisations that want to hold same sex marriages (such as the ever lovely Quakers) are not, currently, able to. Religious freedom, right there, folks!
So the current government introduced a bill to equalise marriage law; to give same sex couples the right to get married. It wouldn’t force any religious institution to perform same sex marriages, but would allow those that wanted to to (aside from, for complicated legal reasons, The Church of England). Sounds good, right?
Well, to most of the population, it does.
But to an annoyingly vocal minority, this legislation will erode the very fabric of marriages, be an end of civilisation as we know it, cause dragons to descend from the sky etc etc. This wouldn’t be so worrying if these people were just random overly zealous bloggers and enthusiastic tweeters. But apparently these are opinions shared by many of our current MPs. Although the only major party to officially oppose equal marriage was UKIP – claiming the European Court of Human Rights would sue religious organisations who would not perform equal marriages; something which has never happened in any European country that has legalised same sex marriages) – a bunch of MPs still voted against the legislation.
The majority of these were Tories (if only Tories had voted, the bill wouldn’t have passed), but a small number of Lib Dems and smaller number of Labour MPs voted against; including local Leeds MP George Moody (Labour), while local Lib Dem MP, Greg Mulholland, abstained.
(Campaigners for Equal Marriage outside Westminster on the day of the vote.)
The debate itself was by turn both wonderful and horrible. Hearing MP after MP say they did not believe same sex couples should get married was as depressing as many of the speeches in favour were inspiring. One of the best moments was when Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, said he would vote against the bill at third reading. He said that marriage revolved around children.
Lyn Brown, the Labour MP for West Ham, said Timms attended her wedding. Timms must have noticed that she was above child bearing age when she got married, and asked if that made her marriage invalid.
Yvette Cooper gave one of the most inspiring speeches in favour of equal marriage I have ever heard, and also pointed out that same sex marriages will mean more parties…and who doesn’t love a good party? David Lammy gave an excellent speech comparing homophobia to racism, saying “separate but equal is the language that pushed Rosa Parks to the back of the bus”.
So, the bill passed, so we have marriage equality now, right? Well, not exactly. The bill now has to go to committee stage, where all the details will be ironed out, and then voted on by the House of Commons again, and then voted on by the House of Lords. But hey, we’re getting there.
And you’ve got to love the UK’s political system. To quote the US’s Daily Show, “Even when the United Kingdom is extending civil rights beyond what we offer in this country they still do it by shouting at a golden sceptre.”
Images from:
http://www.stonewall.org.uk/media/current_releases/7887.asp
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/a_pie_chart_detailing_same-sex_marriage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2013/feb/05/gay-marriage-debate-politics-live-blog