UK House of Commons Votes To Allow Same-Sex Marriage in England and Wales

Credit: Italo-Europeo/wikimedia

The British House of Commons has voted to allow same-sex marriage in England and Wales. The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill now heads to the House of Lords, where Prime Minister David Cameron hopes it will be voted on soon.

Getting the bill through the House of Commons was only the latest battle Cameron has fought against his party's grassroots and some of its backbench Members of Parliament. Of the 305 Conservative MPs 136 voted against the bill, which received strong support from the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party.

The vote in the House of Commons comes shortly after the French legalized gay marriage, a move that caused protests and a suicide.

While passage of The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will be a welcome relief to David Cameron he needs to find a way to navigate his way to the next general election without alienating his party's grassroots. While 54 percent of the British public support allowing same-sex couples to marry only 45 percent of Conservatives do. In the United Kingdom Independence Party, which has been another recent thorn in David Cameron's side, only 38 percent of members support for same-sex marriage.

A YouGov poll released today shows that Labour, the Conservative Party's main opposition, is polling eight percent ahead of the Conservatives. If Cameron wants to have a shot at still being Prime Minister after the next general election he has the unenviable task of getting the economy back to an acceptable state while trying to appease eurosceptics and those in the Conservative Party who object to social legislation like The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. Doing so may involve getting better at communicating to Conservative Party activists, who were recently characterized by one of Cameron's senior allies as "mad, swivel-eyed loons."

Comments

[entropy]

Eh, this bill will not relieve him I think, unless you mean he's 'relieved' of about 5% of his support to UKIP.

The UK already had civil partnerships, and not only was that not good enough, they now have both civil partnerships and marriage for homosexuals, but they voted down the bill allowing opposite sex partnerships as a deal breaker.

[Aresen]

Same sex marriage between English and whales?

Kinky. Very kinky.

[Apatheist ?_??]

When you think of Wales, you probably think of the fish with the biggest dick in the ocean.

[Mr Whipple]

I certainly don't think of the mammal with the biggest dick in the ocean.

[Apatheist ?_??]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOZlJiOvXsU

[Rhywun]

No way am I clicking that link.

[Apatheist ?_??]

It's just the Ali G skit I was referring to.

[Caleb Turberville]

It will be a cold, grim, muggy day in Scotland before they allow same-sex marriage!

[Hugh Akston]

I...this might be a threadwinner?

[Mr Whipple]

No True Scotsman...

[Stormy Dragon]

The sheep would get jealous!

[Hugh Akston]

So no lad-on-lad love for the Ulsters?

[prolefeed]

I'm guessing they left Scotland and Northern Ireland out of this because of the Catholic votes.

[Hugh Akston]

They were worried that it might lead to altarboys getting married too young?

[Ornithorhynchus]

Scotland has a separate legal system, so most legislation involving civil law (which I guess includes marriage law) only apply to England and Wales.
I'm not sure how the legal system works in Northern Ireland.

[Ray]

No, they have a brilliant system wherein the Scottish and Northern Irish get to vote on all the laws in England, but the English can't vote on anything in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

[DJF]

At what point do we reach a tipping point and Reason Magazine comes out with a annual Homosexual Wedding edition listing all the fabulous wedding fashions and decoration ideas for the year?

Just think on how much you can make in advertizements.

[entropy]

The real question is where the hell do we go from here, because if homosexual activists have to give up their victimhood status now they'll probably start pushing repeal. It'll have to be something.

[Some call me Tim?]

Oh, don't worry they'll still be complaining about their othering.

Their next hill is getting included in national anti-discrimination legislation, and becoming a protected status.

[Gweskoyen]

So I am gay and want the same rights as straight people. Does this mean I'm playing the victim card?

You can't be a Libertarian and be opposed to gay rights. It just isn't logically coherent.

[Some call me Tim?]

Ummm you can be a Libertarian and be opposed to laws against discrimination by private individuals/entities.

You can say that Title II of the CRA of 1964 violates the principle of free association and is thus unconstitutional.

You can say that businesses should be free to enter into commerce with whomever they choose, even if that choice is made for reasons we may find abhorrent.

[Gweskoyen]

What has all of this to do with equal marriage rights?

[Some call me Tim?]

COSMOZZZ!!!111

[A Serious Man]

The House of Commons will leave decisions regarding sheep to the Welsh legislature.

[Mr Whipple]

Only the consenting sheep!!!

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Whatever. The Euros are up to their eyeballs in debt, the UK in particular is deciding whether or not to stay in a collapsing political union, and this is the hill that Cameron is ready to die on.

Ridiculous.

[Russell]

Just because the foremost Tory climate denier looks like Marty Feldman and talks like the Mad Hatter is , come to think of it , considerable cause to speak of a bunch of swivel-eyed loons.