The marriage equality debate comes up for debate again
today, as you can probably tell by the number of Tories frothing and spreading
bigotry on various news channels – and someone’s rattled Lord Carey’s cage
again.
We now go into the amendment stage. When we did this with
Civil Partnerships, this was when the Tories did everything they could to
scupper the law by throwing as much mud at it as possible in the hope that it
would stick and drown the law – things like sibling marriages et al. No doubt
the same is going to happen here.
Some ones that have pinged the radar:
Referendum. Yes,
we need to turn out the whole country to vote on whether or not we get to get
wed. Referenda in the UK are reserved for major constitutional changes for the
most part, they’re not things we do casually and certainly not things we do for
people’s basic human rights. So far, referendums and proposed referendums have
been confined to things like EU membership, devolution, the voting system;
constitutional structural changes all. We have
only had 11 of them – ever - and none of them have ever concerned human
rights being put up for popular vote. Even bigoted
MP David barrows admits he’s only introducing the amendment to try and sink
the bill.
Needless to say, the very idea of the whole nation of
predominantly straight people voting on my rights sickens me and infuriates me.
Add in the complete lack of any constitutional basis for such a referendum and
it’s a blatant, nauseating piece of homophobia.
Discrimination
Immunity apparently for registrars and school teachers and who knows what
else – all will be given a pass from our current equality laws to be raging
homophobic bigots under this amendment. No. Really fucking no. If a registrar
wants their bigoted religion to control their job then they should have become
a vicar, priest, rabbi, imam, or whatever their bigotry of choice is.
And teachers most certainly should never get a pass to be bigots. The harm this does to our children – in all schools and, yes, that includes private and faith schools. It’s especially important in faith schools that are already shown to be extremely hostile places for GBLT youth. Marriage equality will exist – teachers teach what exists. You don’t get to pretend something doesn’t exist because you don’t like it. You don’t get to teach children we don’t exist because you’re bigots. And we do not tolerate teachers denigrating people by race, religion or gender – so why should we do so for GBLT people? I am sick and tired of the unthinkable when it comes to other marginalised people being the publicly acceptable with GBLT people.
This is apparently something Cameron is considering as a
concession to getting the bill passed. And that’s ridiculous – the bill will
pass with the majority of Labour and Lib Dem MPs and the minority of Tories who
support equality. The last vote passed overwhelmingly by over 225 votes. There
is no need of concessions to pass this law. There IS a need for concessions for
the Tories if
they want to try and present this law as their baby, as I said previously.
Whatever praise Cameron hoped for for being the prime minister who brought
marriage equality is badly shattered by over half of his party opposing it and
the nasty shit his MPs have been spouting since its introduction. To claw back some of that sense of this being
a TORY bill, he needs at least half of his MPs to vote for it – it’ll be weak,
but something. Though snipping out pieces of the equality act to convince his
party to support equality is a bit of a non-starter. Of course, he’s also
running scared from UKIP and this government is deeply reactionary. In a
classically-Cameron slapstick moment, he’s trying to push the “look how modern
I am” while at the same time still woo the Swivel Eyed Loons (thank you Lord
Feldman) who are champing at the bit and protest voting to UKIP, the BNP with
better PR.
Straight civil
partnerships I have to say I am bemused as to why straight people so
desperately want access to the not-good-enough-for-marriage partnerships since
I can’t see one damn thing it brings you that civil marriage doesn’t - beyond
the fact that straight people simply have to be part of everything and in
everything. But, hey if we want to continue civil partnerships (which is
probably easier and less problematic than scrapping them after marriage
equality) then by all means have them open to straight folks.
However, Maria
Miller claims that this amendment would delay implementation by 2 years. I
have no idea why – but then, I have no idea why it has taken this damn long to
get marriage equality. I suspect it may be a derail and may be a lie or a
figure plucked out of the air. While I don’t trust her, the fact that the ones
proposing this amendment are the usual Tory bigots who hate all things equality
and will do anything to destroy this bill makes me think that it is certainly
designed to delay or derail marriage equality. I can’t imagine them supporting
this UNLESS it helps damage, delay or destroy marriage equality. Much as I
dislike Lynn Featherstone and her straightwashing and dismissal of Tory
homophobia, she’s right when she says “beware
opponents bearing gifts.” Again, this is what the Tories did when civil
partnerships were first introduced – try to drown them in amendments.
Either way, I do not support our fight for equality being
derailed and delayed AGAIN by entitled straight people deciding they need the
lesser-not!marriage-we’ve-been-forced-to-settle-on. The idea that our access to
the full institution should be delayed so straight people can also have the
lesser-institution sticks in the craw.
It’s tempting to consider this battle won because of the
success of the earlier votes – but it’s far from over, especially with the
Lords looming over. At this stage we need to be vigilant over marriage equality
being deformed, of amendments being introduced that would gut our equality in
other areas, of “concessions” that would leave us with let another unequal
institution and of delays and wrangles that could see us waiting yet more years
for marriage equality to actually happen. Keep on fighting.
