The Mail on Sunday reported that the Tory Chief Whip, Patrick McLoughlin, who is a Catholic with one of the worst voting records on lesbian and gay rights, is privately telling anxious Tory MPs that the coalition government’s plans for marriage equality will be “kicked into the long grass”. However neither the Mail nor PinkNews could confirm this report with him, and the Prime Minister’s spokeperson wouldn’t comment on any private remarks supposedly made by Patrick McLoughlin.
A spokesperson for Prime Minister’s office told both the Mail and PinkNews that Mr Cameron and the government remain “fully committed” to marriage equality.
Major LGB Equality Conversion for Catholic Iain Duncan Smith
Meanwhile another senior Tory Catholic MP, the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, on Friday publicly stated he supported marriage equality. This is a major personal conversion and is a complete change of his views. He pointed out in an interview in The Times that in a country where so many heterosexual couples are breaking up, marriage equality is a positive method of creating a more stable society.
“I’m for things that are about stability. I think our biggest problem is actually with cohabiting parents breaking up at the rate they do — heterosexual cohabitees, not gay couples — because they’re the ones leaving the trail of devastation afterwards.”
This is a remarkable conversion to lesbian and gay equality for the former leader of the Conservative Party, who is on the socially conservative wing of the party. He’s a Catholic MP with a very long record of opposing lesbian and gay rights: as Tory leader he made it party policy to opposed equal adoption rights, opposed the repeal of the notorious Section 28 (which effectively banned discussion of homosexuality in schools), and has voted against the Civil Partnerships, opposed equal access to fertility treatments for lesbians, and argued LGB partners of parents should have less rights than heterosexual partners of parents.
Tory plotting against marriage equality?
The Mail on Sunday also claimed that several Tory MPs, concerned at the amount of opposition to marriage equality, have formed a clandestine group to try to persuade David Cameron to abandon the proposals. The evidence the Mail quotes for this is flimsy. It could just be political spin to try bolster the Tory vote in Thursday’s local and mayoral elections. Cameron very publicly adopted equal marriage at the Tory party conference as a modernisation policy to ‘detoxify’ the Tory brand. So abandoning marriage equality would be a major personal U-turn that would make him look politically weak. The Tory noises of opposition seem more like bluff and bluster. The number of voters who might abandon the Tories over lesbian and gay marriage equality is really tiny. Who might conservative supporters vote for instead? The rather toxic choices are UKIP or BNP, because Labour and the Lib Dems are also supporting marriage equality. Almost everyone at general elections votes on the big issues - jobs and the economy, and that will be especially true at the next election because the economy will still be poorly.
Video for British campaign supporting Marriage Equality
This is a new independent short film produced to support the Coalition for Equal Marriage for changing the law to allow civil weddings for lesbian and gay couples.
Directed by award winning film-maker Mike Buonaiuto, the short film shows British forces returning home to their loved ones, with the reunion of one soldier and his partner soon turning into a surprise marriage proposal.
The film aims to tackle opposition with by arguing that if people can serve in British military regardless of sexuality, they should be able celebrate their love and commitment with civil marriage. Film-maker Mike Buonaiuto explained:
“One day I would like to marry my partner of almost 5 years. And the celebration of our commitment should mean no more or less than any other straight couple. I made the film to promote change and also inspire others to use their creativity to support equality.”
The short film stars James Knight, from London’s West End and rising screen-star Lew Smart.
It’s a pity that lesbians’ interest in marriage equality is not mentioned (there’s only a gender neutral caption at the end). Marriage equality campaign videos usually seem to feature gay men couples.
So I looked and found this : Our Big Phat Lesbian Wedding
The Australian equal marriage campaign video “It’s Time” is awesome and has been watched about 6 million times. It’s about a gay male couple.
Or try Sinead’s Hand, the Irish marriage equality video. In this one lesbians get a mention at the end, but it features a man.
What can I do to support equal marriage rights?
- share the video with friends
- talk with people about why equal marriage rights matter
- sign the Coalition For Equal Marriage petition (only 51,000 votes so far, but the opposition has around 500,000)
- responding to the public consultation is made easy at the AboutTime website
- e-mail your MP: the British Humanist Society makes this easy
- DIY responding to the public consultation on marriage equality
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Help this Yank understand how the UK parlimentary system works. Here, if enough of the Congress signs a petition, a motion/bill can be forced to the floor for a vote, no matter what the Whip or Speaker wants.
Can that, does that happen in the House of Commons?
Glad to help Kevin.
There is no Bill yet before Parliament. A Bill will be drafted by the Equalities Office when the public consultation on the principles has ended in June. There may be a long delay of two years.
The Chief Whip can’t block the Bill once it is launched down the Parliamentary slipway. His scheming is just mischief making, contrary to his party’s policy.
The reality is that all three main Parties (the two in the governing coalition, and the Labour opposition) are all in favour of marriage equality.
A great number of Tory MPs could vote against it and it would still pass in the House of Commons.
The bigger uncertainty about voting is in the House of Lords. There are 20 Church of England Bishops with a right to vote and there are concerns among anti-equality Christians about domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights Courts interpreting the law in a way that could require Churches / Clergy to marry LGB people.
My view is that is a completely misplaced anxiety. We dealt with it as recently as December when Churches were given the power (if they choose) to host Civil Partnership ceremonies within religious buildings. No religious element is allowed if they do. The Lords passed that, despite last minute procedural games.
There was some discussion of this at the CEC conference on religious homophobia last week. I think there’s consensus that it will pass easily in the Commons, but there is uncertainty in the Lords. It’s worth noting though, that the legislation to permit civil partnerships on religious premises began in the Lords, with the “Lord Ali amendment”. Also, when the religious right attempted to derail this last December, they were roundly defeated. On both occasions, powerful lobbying by some church groups (notably the Quakers, Unitarians and liberal Jews, but also others) played a prominent part. The legislation is quite explicitly about civil marriage, not religious, and the opposition will not be able to claim that religious forces are united.
The outcome in the Lords is always unpredictable, but the odds are that it will pass.
Chris, the lack of lesbian couples doesn’t surprise me at all. Men are not afraid of lesbians, and in fact lesbian sex is a big draw in hetero porn. No, it’s gay men and straight male homophobia which is the emotional driving force in the anti gay marriage crusade.
Back in the day I did a study on when people feel the most approved and happiest. Both genders, by a very big margin, equated their happiest moments with approval by some significant male in their lives. I am hardly surprised lesbians stay more or less beneath the radar on gay marriage.
Thanks - I was not much surprised either, but think its important not to collude with the invisibility, so I drew attention to it and tried to remedy it.
Of course LG marriage is represented as almost entirely a white / able-bodied … affair too.