So, there we have it: equal marriage for same-sex couples in the civil law and the chance for religious groups to choose to offer same-sex religious marriage if they want to. It’s another step toward equality in front of the law for the LGBT community. The community has come a long way in the 43 years since the Stonewall riots in New York City.
And the Liberal Democrats have led the way in the UK. We were the first party to commit to a policy of civil partnerships, in a Private Members Bill, and at our conference in 2010 we were the first party to adopt equal marriage for same-sex couples. Our drive to secure equal treatment for one and all is enshrined in the preamble to our constitution, and it is in the DNA of our members.
We have consistently been the champions of equality and now and both Labour and the Prime Minister back equal marriage too. With the Coalition Government looking set to bring forward legislation, Liberal Democrats can be rightly proud of the role we have played.
In Britain, over those 43 years and for many more years before that, we’ve seen thousands of innocent people criminalised and jailed, hundreds subjected to medical torment in the search of a “cure” and scores of thousands of lives wasted by individuals in denial hiding from themselves in the dark. Their only “crime”: to love someone of the same gender and to want to express that love.
We should be clear that delivering equal marriage won’t mean that the journey is over. Still too many gay children are beaten and bullied by their school mates or kicked out of the family home by their parents. Still too many lesbians are denied promotion at work or told their custom isn’t wanted in a hotel or shop. Still too many people find it difficult to come out to colleagues and live a half-life in the shadows. Many young gay people fail to imagine a future where they can be in love, settled, happy and accepted.
Equal marriage is not the answer for all the LGBT community’s woes but it is the beginning of the right question. The extension of the franchise to women hasn’t yet delivered equal pay for women and the end of apartheid hasn’t yet ended racism but it changed the debate. Legal equality for LGBT people will send a clear signal that being gay, lesbian or transgendered is not wrong.
Separate but equal, the mantra behind civil partnerships, was a step along this road – and all credit to the last Government for taking it – but it also sent a subtle message: a wink and a nod that gays were different. Equal marriage ends that – it ends an era of one rule for one section of society and one rule for another.
It will open up a cornerstone institution within our community to couples who want to make a serious commitment to each other and solidify the expression of their love for one another. Equal marriage will allow lesbian and gay young people to imagine a life where they fall in love, get married and live happily ever after in just the same way that their straight friends can.
And it will be a powerful weapon to help end the pernicious sniggering that is still too common in boardrooms, classroom and dining rooms across the country. It will give confidence and support to those who today, across our country, are still struggling to tell their family and friends for the first time in fear of their reaction.
And it strikes the right balance between religious freedom and individual equality. It is, of course, right that religious groups should not be compelled to offer equal marriage – freedom of religion is a core belief of our party too. We don’t compel the Church to offer marriage to straight divorcees who wish to remarry and we must not compel them to offer same-sex equal marriage.
Equality has always had enemies – and the flat earthers in the Tories will no doubt rush so far to the right in opposition to this that they will be in danger of falling off the edge. But opponents are out of step with public opinion and they are now out of time. Their vocal opposition, when it comes, will only further damage the institutions they claim to want to protect, showing them to be no longer fit for purpose in twenty-first century Britain.
The great march to a fairer and more equal society will continue one step at a time and as Liberal Democrats we should welcome that.
* Stephen Gilbert is Liberal Democrat MP for St Austell and Newquay and chairs the Regional Aviation All Party Parliamentary Group
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6 Comments
This articles’s all a bit LGb(t), but thanks for the effort of mentioning lesbians out loud and not just using gay and LGBT interchangeably. It’s appreciated.
It’s great that we’ll be seeing legislation on this, but we need to make sure it’s good law. We need to solve the issue of mixed-gender civil partnerships and fix the problems which trans people have currently.
LGBT+ Lib Dems will be encouraging our Parliamentarians to pass a law which resembles our inclusive, well-considered party policy as closely as possible to make sure the cisgendered gay/lesbian majority doesn’t overshadow the rest of the LGBT+ communities.
“the issue of mixed-gender civil partnerships”
As a matter of interest, what is the difference, besides the name, between marriage and civil partnerships? I’ve tended to assume that the latter was just “the name for gay marriage so we don’t have to upset the neanderthals by calling it marriage” … if so, is there any point in continuing to offer is as an option once marriage has been extended to same-sex couples? And if not, how do/will they differ?
“We have consistently been the champions of equality”
Although I fully support and commend the Right of ALL to be able to marry (something that is long overdue), and acknowledge that many within the Liberal Democrats have campaigned with great vigour on this specific issue, the ‘deafening’ silence regarding the Tories desire to dismantle the current equalities legislations implies that we have lost the right to call ourselves “the champions of equality”.
Currently the Tories in their Equality Reform Bill, that is in the Lords at the moment are proposing to:
• Remove the Commission for Equality and Human Rights general duty,
• Remove the Commission for Equality and Human Rights duty to promote good relations,
• Remove provisions to protect people from third party harassment, and
• Remove the formal procedure which enables applicants to ask questions of an alleged discriminator (the questionnaire procedure).
(Source: Equality & Diversity Forum, http://www.edf.org.uk )
These points may not sound particularly important to some, but the reality is that equality is not something that happens, merely because people are nice, but is significantly aided because there exists legislation to support the victims facing intolerance, needless barriers, and overt bigotry.
As someone who has worked within the public sector, and closely with equality and diversity issues, at both strategic and operational levels, I am only too aware, that people are totally misguided if they believe that there are numerous people currently abusing the system, and using the “race” or any other card to win cases.
Without legislation, the steps that have been made to make public sector organisations more open, and enforce them to provide equitable services, would not have happened. The ‘good practice’ and policies and procedures, that have emanated are the result of a requirement that has been driven by legislative drivers . We have not even in the twenty-first century reach a point in this society, where we can leave the delivery of equality to goodwill, and good intentions alone, and just expect people to do the right thing. We have a long way to go yet, before we reach the utopian vision where inequality is no longer the norm in life for many people, hence we need to strengthen powers, not rid ourselves of them, merely because a few people believe them to be superfluous.
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
English Party Diversity Champion
On that last comment, I’m not sure I’ll greatly miss the duty to promote good relations being removed from an organisation as cack-handed as the CEHR, but the loss of the questions procedure would be a grievous blow to the fight against discrimination. I’ve used it professionally in the past and it is a powerful weapon. Will our parliamentarians, in and out of government, fight this unconditionally?
The benefits of the general duty are that any organisation has to demonstrate throughout its functions that has due regard to eliminate discrimination harassment and victimisation etc, advance equality of opportunity between people and foster good relations.
The current proposals of the organisations will only need to assert that equality has been considered, but this is not the same as providing evidence of it.
Surely we do not wish to see a return to situation that which prevailed between the late 1970s and 1990s when the duty under section 71 of the Race Relations Act applied only to local government and not other public services such as the police..
As a former police officer, that joined post-Scarman, and was involved in applying the recommendations of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, 1999, I remember only too well what the environment was like within the police, and other public sector organisations towards specifically BME and Gay staff to be fearful of a return to such overt intolerance, because such organisations are no longer held to account in a meaningful manner.
Along with Simon Banks, I would urge our Parliamentarians, and Peers to not support the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill proposals in their entirety, as this bill, if it is enacted will put society back decades, and demonstrate to the public, that we as a Party do not truly understand what fairness and equality looks like in the real world.
I for one, am confident that the Party will see sense, once it has realised that it has seriously taken its “eyes off the ball” for a brief time.
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
English Party Diversity Champion