Something I note with some despair is the assertion that marriage equality is not a transgender issue. The argument goes that it’s primarily an LGB issue and trans people only get consequential benefits from it. Well, that’s not really accurate, as our history, and the history of others, shows.
Tag: Equal Marriage
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The spousal veto is still a veto, even if you pretend it isn’t
So, the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act got given Royal Assent yesterday and, while I’m happy at the general idea of people in same-gender marriages being able to marry, I’m not singing Dancing Queen and waving my pride flag just yet. Because the legislation contains a rather insidious prejudiced open secret: the spousal veto. The lovely Sarah Brown, who should be thanked for her tireless campaigning for trans marriage equality, has a brilliant blog post about it here. I don’t want to duplicate her too much, so if you haven’t read it, do so now. And while government ministers and even some opposition MPs alike are pretending it’s not a veto, the way it works means it is.
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The Devil in the Details: Reading the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill
I would like to thank Sarah Brown, Jae Kay, and Zoe O’Connell for their analyses of the bill so far; I’ve had some time to read the bill over the past 36 hours and I’ve got my own comments.
Were I to grade the legislation, I’d give it 6/10, could do better. In the abstract, it’s a good bill, in so much as two people of the same gender will be able to marry. However, there are some seams in which the concept of equal marriage start to fray.
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Why I’m Out4Marriage
Please consider supporting campaigns such as Out4Marriage and the Coalition for Equal Marriage.
It was World Pride Day in London yesterday and I’m stuck in Yorkshire. So I thought I’d do a few posts over the following days about LGBT stuff. This is the first one. It’s something I think I should’ve done a long time ago but I didn’t have the words to explain it all. I still don’t, really, but I’ll try. (more…)