UK Conservative heavyweights lobby FOR gay marriage bill.

[pampango]

Gay marriage bill 'right thing to do', say Tory heavyweights in appeal to MPs

George Osborne, William Hague and Theresa May have made a late appeal to Conservative MPs not to oppose gay marriage, insisting it "is the right thing to do at the right time".

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, David Cameron's three most senior lieutenants said "the question now is whether it is any longer acceptable to exclude people from marriage simply because they love someone of the same sex".

The surprise intervention of the cabinet's heaviest hitters suggested the bill was in line with Conservative values and strengthened both marriage and religious freedom.

"Marriage has evolved over time. We believe that opening it up to same-sex couples will strengthen, not weaken, the institution. As David Cameron has said, we should support gay marriage not in spite of being Conservatives, but because we are Conservatives."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/feb/05/gay-marriage-right-thing-tory

The article says that "up to half" of the Conservative party's MP's may vote against the bill anyway due to " intense pressure in their constituencies to vote against the measure". Sounds like the conservative base does not like this one bit.

Still it does highlight the differences between the UK and US. It is hard to imagine Boehner, McConnell and, say, Romney coming out in favor of gay marriage legislation.

[RKP5637]

1. Marriage should be about bringing people together that want to make a commitment to

each other, not an institution denying people the right to be happy. Equality means equality, not pick and choose equality.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. a few historical reasons for this:

a) Britain sent their religious nutters off to America a long time ago, part of the reason for the US/UK split.

b) the established church provided a moderating influence that for the most part has led to, on the one hand, very few splinter sects of fundamentalists emerging, and on the other hand has made a significant part of the population indifferent to religion at best over the past century or so (and the experience of WWI, which the USA didn't share in to anything like the same extent, did quite a lot to cause a general decline in religion in Britain and in Europe more generally).

[RKP5637]

3. +1, n/t

[pampango]

4. "Britain sent their religious nutters off to America a long time ago ..."

Yeah, thanks for that. (It was a little more complicated than that, but point well taken.)

Interesting take that generations of war in your front yard - not a few thousand miles away - tends to lead to a general decline in religious fervor. That certainly seems to be true in Europe. I wonder if it holds in other parts of the world. Food for thought. Thanks.