Pre-heat the debate to 1000°C (for fan-assisted debates consult your hyperbole and scaremongering manual at www.c4m.org.uk). Then, to an unsuspecting social network add an average gay couple from Newcastle, experience in web development, some amazing volunteers and zero funding. Leave for 114 days (either side of day jobs) and you end up with:
- over 60k supporters
- 131,346 visitors
- 11.3k tweets
- 2353 Twitter followers
- 42,328 Likes
- 770k YouTube views
- A genuine grass-roots campaign for marriage equality in England and Wales.
The closing of the consultation gives an opportunity to pause and consider how we got here. The Liberal Democrats became the first major political party to officially support same-sex marriage in September 2010. In September 2011 the Coalition Government announced it would consult on legalising same-sex marriage by 2015, which was generally greeted with a warm welcome and a mixture of “It’s about time” and “Why not?” by most.
Cut to late February and it all hits the fan with the publication of the most offensive comments I have personally experienced in my 29 years. We have all heard the laughable claims in the US that homosexuals were to blame for the tragedies of hurricane Katrina and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, but this particular attack was too close to home and too real to simply roll eyes at.
It was these comments that launched an initially run-of-the-mill announcement into the battleground on which we currently finds it, somewhat confused as to what the fuss is about. Emotions are running high on both sides of the debate, but only at the far sides. In the middle we have the Great British public, largely supportive, equally as confused as to what the fuss is all about.
As tiresome as it is to repeat ad nauseam, I’ll say it again; our opposition are entitled to believe that any union other than that of a man and a woman is wrong. They’re allowed to say so, and they’re allowed to preach that in their place of worship. What they are not allowed to do is dictate that everyone in this country must live their lives in accordance to their fringe beliefs. The best thing about the UK is its diversity. Diversity of heritage, ethnicity, culture, language, faith, political belief, sport, art, music, I could go on and on. We are world leaders in so many areas, and we are rightly very proud of that. We should, and will, resist any efforts to limit the acceptance of that.
Throughout the campaign we have unsurprisingly been involved in a lot of debating and arguing. I am now more convinced than ever that there is no single significant or valuable argument to block marriage equality. The most recent of which include the significance of millennia of evolutionary conditioning of the human race, and that we dispense with it at our peril. That of course assumes that LGBT folk appeared only yesterday and haven’t been subject to evolution too.
Another was an attempt to debunk our homosexuality vs shellfish and mixed fibres “Pick & Mix” analogy. That boiled down to the fact that you either agree that homosexuality is an abomination to the Lord and that homosexuals must be put to death, or you’re back to Pick & Mix again.
By far the most entertaining and ridiculous argument was offered up by Brendan O’Neill of the Telegraph. He suggested that we should bin same-sex marriage simply because he doesn’t understand where it’s come from all of a sudden. It must have been foisted on us as a nation and pushed forward by a “snobby, intolerant and elitist” campaign. I’d love to invite him round to our neighbourhood to toast marshmallows over the burnt-out caravan round the back of our house and discuss how elite we really are.
There is no justifiable reason not to support marriage equality, just as there is no justifiable reason not to support equality in general in the eyes of the law. Personally, I don’t believe the government could have handled this situation any better than it currently has. We are committed to marriage equality, the government has made its promises and the people are watching.
Two great things have come from this whole debate. The first is that we have seen a huge surge in the number of people engaging with the political process. Regardless of whether a participant agrees with one’s perspective, we should all be glad that we have an engaged, vocal and energised public. The second thing is the fact that we have been prompted to debate, question and re-evaluate, with both our hearts and our minds, some of our most fundamental principles. Freedom, love and equality.
Our commitment to those principles remains stronger than ever.
Conor Marron co-founded the Coalition for Equal Marriage with James Lattimore.
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10 Comments
C4EM have done a great job campaigning on this issue, and we at LGBT+ Lib Dems have encouraged people to support them with links to their petition from our About Time for Equal Marriage guide to the consultation.
It was good to see Stonewall eventually join the campaign, given their previous opposition to marriage equality – though they’re still letting down the bisexual people they claim to represent by stating that mixed-gender civil partnerships are “a matter for heterosexuals”.
The consultation has finished but the campaign will go on to raise awareness, lobby Parliamentarians in advance of legislation and prepare amendments to fill in potential legislative gaps such as equal religious marriage for willing churches, mixed-sex civil partnerships, and one member of a civilly-partnered couple changing gender. And when the Bill comes before the Parliament, we will again have to lobby MPs in the face of opposition from people who believe their opinions should prohibit the activities of others that don’t affect them.
How Ironic that the “Coalition for Marriage” are advertising on this site today…
Their site is exactly what you’d expect, short on facts and (in my opinion) long on bigotry. It is scary though that 560,000 people + have signed their petition.
http://c4m.org.uk/
Thankfully they will get slender pickings from here, well done to all involved I am left crossing everything from fingers to eyes that common sense and equality in marriage will prevail.
Rather ironic that just below this piece I get an advert for…. The Coalition for Marriage! 🙂
I think it’s great, Hywel – I clicked on a few to waste their money, but hadn’t fully realised how weak and factually incorrect their “arguments” were before.
Agreed Dave. And what C4M have not realised with their knee-jerking bigotry is that you can get a Mother’s Day card without ever having given birth. A friend has no uterus, yet has received many Mothers’ Day cards from her (adopted) children. And just as you don’t need a womb to be a mother, so you shouldn’t need one to marry a man.
“I don’t believe the government could have handled this situation any better than it currently has.”
Except for the fact that the major partner in the government has basically dropped its support for gay marriage, turning it over to a free vote. It would be nice to see them getting a bit of stick for that, as at the moment one would think that the only opponents to gay marriage reside in the Catholic and Anglican churches.
Stuart, the Conservatives never had any support for equal marriage to drop; neither do Labour. The Lib Dems are the only party with actual party policy to support marriage equality. That’s something we’re pointing out, not to score partisan points but because if Labour adopt policy it’ll make it easier to whip their Parliamentarians.
We know that many Tory MPs, some Labour and hopefully no Lib Dem MPs will vote against this Bill in the Commons (C4EM statistics; needs Javascript) but I’m pretty confident that it’ll get past that House. The Lords will be trickier, and while I’d still bet on eventually passing there, I wouldn’t necessarily bet very much on it.
Are the conditions for a divorce from a same sex marriage (SSM) going to be the same for an opposite sex marriage?
Although I am delighted to see that no Lib Dem MP has yet announced her/his opposition to Equal Marriage, I am concerned that 40% have yet to publically state where they stand on this issue (including two Cabinet members and a number of other ministers).
Certain Lib Dem MPs have a record on gay equality that is patchy at best (mainly through absenting themselves from important votes). I hope there is a clear indication from ALL Lib Dem MPs very soon on how they intend to vote on this issue and I hope it reflects the wishes of the vast majority of members.
@DavePage – I didn’t even read that far 🙂
@DavePollard – Almost certainly. Dissolution of a Civil partnership is.