Equal Marriage: Gay is OK

Something I've noticed about the debate around Equal Marriage is the lack of people who are denouncing homosexuality in itself. Of course there's the odd nutter hanging around, but there's no widespread hysteria around the actual sexual orientation.

This can only be a good thing and possibly shows the changing attitudes towards gay and lesbian people in the country. What is obvious though is there are plenty of Tory MPs who can't find a good reason not to support equal marriage, other than it wasn't in anyone's manifesto. Well, I'm not sure that going into coalition was in the Conservative or Lib Dem manifestos, but it's happened - although I guarantee it's the same MPs that don't understand why there's a coalition in the first place!

Marriage is conducted under license from the state; indeed in America you literally get a marriage license; as such it's up to the state to decide who and who cannot get married. Of course that doesn't mean that all institutions have to carry out a wedding for any couple, indeed in many churches you can only get married there if you are active church members. I suppose the problem comes when a church refuses to marry a gay couple who attend services every week, but there is no easy solution, especially where the established church has its own law prohibiting gay couples being married there.

I think the way forward at the moment can only be to go as far as possible with the current proposed legislation, and within 10 years the situation will hopefully become untenable for those who oppose full equal marriage.

By the way, kudos to Cameron for pushing ahead with this despite the clear opposition from within his own party.

JR