Well, it's sooner than i thought it would have been that i'm able to say this, if slightly choked up when i type this, but same-sex marriage is now legal in the UK.
I always remember years ago when i first started looking up gay family's. I of course saw a few youtube video's, but it's also around the same time i started looking into what the UK was like, when it came to equality laws. I saw that some people were pushing for a bill to go up infront of parliament which would allow (if passed) for same-sex couples to marry. At this point i was kind of un-knowing of what the public opinion was. As i became more vocal on my support for the bill, i wasn't apposed.
Infact, i saw quite abit of support for it, but that wouldn't be enough to get it up infront of parliament would it? would IT????
Years went by and the bill was on the list of things to be debated, yet for one reason or another, it faced delay after delay, until suddenly, we were told "early 2013" and something in my heart thought "this is it".
When the bill came forward i was very impressed, almost cried when i saw how much support it had when the first results came in and over 400 mp's voted in favour of the bill, even if my local mp (Mrs Cooper) voted against it. To view how i felt when that happend and i was told of it, read the post by clicking here.
I always remember on the day of that vote, my facebook was crazy, but my friend's Jay & Bryan were getting message after message off me telling them what was happening as it was happening, i explained about the process afterwards, they were as sure as i was that this bill would pass and that we'd get marriage equality. Infact, they made a video about it (and i think as they were making it, i was still sending messages about the votes after the first one...)
Of course then we finished off in the house of commons and the next step was the house of lords. Here, we DID face some possible changes that would have defeated the bill. A certain member of the house of lords (Lord dear) was calling for many changes which were pathetic, but i think his own homophobic was of trying to get something in the bill for the people who didn't support the bill.
Anyway, a matter of days ago and at the 3rd reading (the veeeery final copy) we passed in the house of lords and things were set to get better in the next stage... or where they?
See, after the house of lords for 99.9% of all bills, the next step is the queen.... now some people still argue the point over why we still have a queen or king, but im here to tell you, they do still have ALOT to do with our politics. The queen could have easily refused the bill and we'd be back to square one.
The queen IS church of england faith, the church of england is still legally banned from carrying out same sex marriage because of the church's stance on the topic. This of course can be changed and i assume as per history, when the numbers start to twindle at church on a sunday and the fnd raising is less, then the church will appeal the decision and start carrying out same-sex marriage.... but whatever, the main point here is, the queen is head of the church, so would she refuse the bill, if even on personal grounds?
The royal family these days does seem quite accepting of all people, well, minus prince phillip, but to be completely honest some of the comments he comes out with shock me, but do have me crying laughing. Like the time he met a london steel drum band and asked them when they were "going home". Part of me always wanted to believe that when the bill went up infront of the queen, she'd have a little smile on her face as she signed the dotted line, crossed the T's and dotted the I's and all would go well for the gays for once.
After the bill had finished in the house of lords, i noticed some of the amendments called for time limits on certain things, but the way the bill is wrote, i wouldn't have a clue what half of it said, but anyway, off it went to the queen. Now i didn't know how long this would take but it seems the queen was as eager to pass this bill as i was for her to do so.... it got signed into law on 17/07/2013 and became legal for same sex couples to marry.
We did it and i couldn't be happier... or could i?
You should know me well by now to know i'm never fully happy with much and this bill isn't something i'm over the moon about.
I shall leave it for a seperate post, but have a little look into the laws in and around divorce, see if it's the same for everyone....
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