The United Kingdom finally ushered in a new era of marriage equality this week with the House of Lords approving legislation.
I find the UK case interesting as the UK already had Civil Unions. However, many people have called for actual marriage. Why?
From the Q&A link above –
Civil partnership is a legal relationship exclusively for same-sex couples, distinct from marriage. It offers the same legal treatment as marriage across a range of matters, such as inheritance, pensions provision, life assurance, child maintenance, next of kin and immigration rights. Opposite-sex couples can opt for a religious or civil marriage ceremony, whereas a same-sex partnership is an exclusively civil procedure. Couples in civil partnerships will be able to convert their relationships into marriages if they wish – but they will be under no obligation to do so if they would rather retain their civil partnership.
So, in many respects it is the same thing – except why call it something different for something that is pretty much the same?
I’ve actually suggested that maybe “civil union” and “marriage” be two different parts of a wedding. Civil union being the legal representation, the formality of all the government paperwork that’s got to be done; where marriage would be the church-side of things. That way everyone has a “civil union”, and you can choose to have the “marriage ceremony”.
That is a loaded subject.
As a British citizen, I am very proud of the UK finally taking things to the next level for marriage equality. It actually means it would be easier for Scott to become a British Citizen and easier for both of us to move to the UK if we wanted to. We don’t have any plans to at this point, but it would be a fun experience.
An interesting thing to note – I’ve shifted my use of language from calling it “gay marriage” to “marriage equality”. It’s a term I picked up, courtesy of Michelangelo Signorile, a well known activist and Sirius-XM Out Q personality.
There really is nothing gay about what Scott and I are going to do, really. Ok, we happen to be two men who happen to be gay getting married. But it’s about levelling the playing field and creating equality for same sex couples. Thankfully, in Canada, we’ve had marriage equality for 10 years.