You are standing at the top of the Shard gazing out over the late evening vista of London. Feeling quite content with life, you sigh a sigh of happiness and feel your lovers arms wrap around you from behind. They untangle themselves from you and you turn around to see what made them break the embrace. You look down. They are balancing on one knee, with a lovestruck look on their face. And your eye is caught by a small black box with a glittering centre.Visions of a future together flash before your eyes, as you imagine yourself walking down the aisle on the arm of your dad, seeing your family and friends gathered around you grinning and taking pictures like papparazzi, buying your first house together, strolling hand in hand on a beach on a romantic holiday, watching your child takes its first steps, seeing them start university, enjoying your retirement, looking after your grand-kids.
But you know that you cannot walk down the aisle. You know that everybody won't be delighted for you and wish you well. You know that there will be abuse hurled at you at some stage of your couple-dom and married life, with the potential for violence against you never too far away. This isn't sub-Saharan Africa under Sharia Law in the Middle Ages. This is Western Europe in the 21st century, where your same sex union won't be recognised as legal or as marriage.
Imagine, despite the happiness you feel through finding that special someone, falling in love with them and all that entails, wanting to spend the rest of your life in domestic bliss with that person, you are told that a big, fat no. You are told that your love does not get the same recognition that a straight couples love will get, your love isn't enough to warrant a marriage. By all means, you can enter into a civil partnership, but for me that sounds more like a business contract than a coming together of two people who love each other, like two men from the 1950's sitting on a bench with canes smoking cigars and talking about the stock exchange and how to maximise their potential through a civil partnership. Jolly good etc etc
I cannot understand, in this day and age, why two people who want to come together in view of their families and friends and vow to love, honour and obey each other, would be denied the blessing of a marriage? Personally, my views on marriage and weddings are mixed, and it's not something I see in my future, but that would never mean I would want to deny anybody else the same choice to wed or not to wed. Being gay in a predominantly heterosexual world is hard enough, why continue to single-out people of a different orientation in such a manner. A human is a human, and humans are capable of profound love (profound hate too, but that's not the point) should it matter if the love is between two people of the same gender? Cousins can marry, they can fall in love, come together in matrimony and have their union classed as a wedding. Yes, cousins. First cousins. Your parents niece or nephew can be married to you. There is overwhelming scientific proof that cousins marrying can lead to physical and mental disabilities if they have children, which many opt to do. They share genetic makeup, and yet it is still called a marriage. As far as I was aware, that was incest... Two people from the same gender however, are restricted from having a traditional marriage.
What would the world will be like if segregation was still in play, and black people and white people couldn't have their wedding recognised as a marriage? There would be uproar.So why segregate the genders in this way? But fear not! The Gay Marriage Bill was passed last night by the House of Commons, and is currently winging its way to the House of Lords for the final hurdle in getting it passed. You know, the House of Commons, that young, radical, forward thinking, gender equal institution that embraces the future with open arms and leads the race in progressive measures to ensure every single person in the UK is treated equally? No, me neither. Yet these are the people that stand between a civil partnership for same sex couples, and a legal marriage for them. And while it cannot legally stop a bill from being passed, it does have the power to use delaying tactics to "persuade" the House of Commons to reconsider and make changes to proposed bills. The people who sit in the House of Lords form part of the UK government, yet the majority have not been voted in by the people for the people. Say what you want about the current coalition government in Britain, but at least Cameron and Clegg were voted in by the citizens of this country. The House of Lords? Well, look to the internet for answers to your questions. But they do have space for twelve Church of England Bishops to sit in the House. Religion has no place in politics, and neither do out of touch elderly statesmen who are seated in the House due to inheritance of their place.
Marriage does not exclusively belong to religion either, no religion cannot lay claim over the institute of marriage, not Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or Paganism. It belongs to people in love. Who are we, and in fact who is anyone to decide who gets married? This will be a huge step forward for human progression and equal rights for all if it goes through. The era of homophobia should be well and truly behind us, and the more we normalise sexual orientation, the less stigma will be attached to people who are gay, and will hopefully and eventually lead to a world where everyone be open about who or what they are. Hardline opponents to the Gay Marriage Bill believe that the sanctity of marriage will be compromised by allowing gay people to marry. No other universe around could possibly think that having more people in love be allowed to legally enjoy a marriage is a bad thing. Its time for people to grow up and stop being prejudiced. Being human is hard enough!
But you know that you cannot walk down the aisle. You know that everybody won't be delighted for you and wish you well. You know that there will be abuse hurled at you at some stage of your couple-dom and married life, with the potential for violence against you never too far away. This isn't sub-Saharan Africa under Sharia Law in the Middle Ages. This is Western Europe in the 21st century, where your same sex union won't be recognised as legal or as marriage.
Imagine, despite the happiness you feel through finding that special someone, falling in love with them and all that entails, wanting to spend the rest of your life in domestic bliss with that person, you are told that a big, fat no. You are told that your love does not get the same recognition that a straight couples love will get, your love isn't enough to warrant a marriage. By all means, you can enter into a civil partnership, but for me that sounds more like a business contract than a coming together of two people who love each other, like two men from the 1950's sitting on a bench with canes smoking cigars and talking about the stock exchange and how to maximise their potential through a civil partnership. Jolly good etc etc
I cannot understand, in this day and age, why two people who want to come together in view of their families and friends and vow to love, honour and obey each other, would be denied the blessing of a marriage? Personally, my views on marriage and weddings are mixed, and it's not something I see in my future, but that would never mean I would want to deny anybody else the same choice to wed or not to wed. Being gay in a predominantly heterosexual world is hard enough, why continue to single-out people of a different orientation in such a manner. A human is a human, and humans are capable of profound love (profound hate too, but that's not the point) should it matter if the love is between two people of the same gender? Cousins can marry, they can fall in love, come together in matrimony and have their union classed as a wedding. Yes, cousins. First cousins. Your parents niece or nephew can be married to you. There is overwhelming scientific proof that cousins marrying can lead to physical and mental disabilities if they have children, which many opt to do. They share genetic makeup, and yet it is still called a marriage. As far as I was aware, that was incest... Two people from the same gender however, are restricted from having a traditional marriage.
What would the world will be like if segregation was still in play, and black people and white people couldn't have their wedding recognised as a marriage? There would be uproar.So why segregate the genders in this way? But fear not! The Gay Marriage Bill was passed last night by the House of Commons, and is currently winging its way to the House of Lords for the final hurdle in getting it passed. You know, the House of Commons, that young, radical, forward thinking, gender equal institution that embraces the future with open arms and leads the race in progressive measures to ensure every single person in the UK is treated equally? No, me neither. Yet these are the people that stand between a civil partnership for same sex couples, and a legal marriage for them. And while it cannot legally stop a bill from being passed, it does have the power to use delaying tactics to "persuade" the House of Commons to reconsider and make changes to proposed bills. The people who sit in the House of Lords form part of the UK government, yet the majority have not been voted in by the people for the people. Say what you want about the current coalition government in Britain, but at least Cameron and Clegg were voted in by the citizens of this country. The House of Lords? Well, look to the internet for answers to your questions. But they do have space for twelve Church of England Bishops to sit in the House. Religion has no place in politics, and neither do out of touch elderly statesmen who are seated in the House due to inheritance of their place.
Marriage does not exclusively belong to religion either, no religion cannot lay claim over the institute of marriage, not Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or Paganism. It belongs to people in love. Who are we, and in fact who is anyone to decide who gets married? This will be a huge step forward for human progression and equal rights for all if it goes through. The era of homophobia should be well and truly behind us, and the more we normalise sexual orientation, the less stigma will be attached to people who are gay, and will hopefully and eventually lead to a world where everyone be open about who or what they are. Hardline opponents to the Gay Marriage Bill believe that the sanctity of marriage will be compromised by allowing gay people to marry. No other universe around could possibly think that having more people in love be allowed to legally enjoy a marriage is a bad thing. Its time for people to grow up and stop being prejudiced. Being human is hard enough!
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