Marriage

The Poms are clearly not as enlightened as us Kiwis. David Cameron facing a defeat in the House of Commons over gay marriage.

David Cameron is facing the prospect of another defeat in the Commons over his plans to legalise gay marriage.

More than 100 Conservatives are said to be ready to back a “wrecking” amendment to the same-sex marriage Bill that could cost the Treasury £4 billion.

If enough Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs also support the amendment – which would open up civil partnerships to heterosexual couples for the first time – then Mr Cameron’s plans will be in jeopardy.

The amendment, proposed by Tim Loughton, a former Tory minister who opposes same-sex marriage, will be backed by many Labour MPs, opposition sources said.

The Liberal Democrats are known to support such a reform.  Read more »

Despite France passing gay marriage legislation a survey has found that the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys don’t much like poofters, and prefer that they don’t live next door.

When is there going to be a survey to find out if we’d like cheese eating surrender monkeys living next door? France is apparently the most intolerant nation in Europe…I suppose you’d get that when since time immemorial other countries have used yours for practicing military manoeuvres.

World Values Survey: France is the least tolerant country in Western Europe, survey finds, despite moves to sign into law a gay marriage bill.

The information which has been monitoring the political and moral attitudes of various countries for more than two decades, shows that countries with more economic freedom have higher degrees of tolerance.

Read more »

I am on the Huddle tonight with Larry Williams and my usual counterpoint Josie Pagani.

Josie might have a bit of a reason to be happy with our topics, one of which is the latest polls. I’m sure the Mumbles Ship is sending her talking points as you read this.

Our topics are:  Read more »

Source: NewsJunkee

Given his stellar global coverage at the moment, I reckon Maurice Williamson should capitalise on the goodwill and run for Mayor against Len Brown.

His 5 minute speech in Wellingotn yesterday has reverberated around the world.

Andrew Sullivan blogged about it.

Huffington Post ran it.

The Sydney Morning Herald printed the entire speech, plus the video.

Ronan Keating tweeted it.

Everybody should take a listen to Maurice Williamson Marriage equality Speech. Simply brilliant.

— Ronan Keating (@ronanofficial) April 17, 2013

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The Owl has dipped his toe in the waters of political commentary about the passing of two bills last night.

Congratulations to Labour and Greens on getting through the marriage equality bill and the mondayisation bill.

In politics, to beat the elected government is an achievement, though in the first bill each MP had a choice.

So while the MP’s wasted millions on a couple of bills that had limited importance to NZ as a whole and the first bill celebrates a small minority and the second bill has a number of fish hooks down the track when businesses decide to flout the law I just sat there watching and said “I just don’t care”.  Read more »

Last night New Zealand became the 13th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.

A bill to legalise same-sex marriage has passed into law after its third reading in Parliament tonight, after months of emotional debate, parliamentary submissions, and passionate protests from people on either side of the issue.

New Zealand has become the 13th country in the world to enshrine marriage equality in law.

I am proud to have played my part in the passing of this bill into law. Here are some of the speeches from my friends made last night.

John Banks:

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As MPs are set to debate the final reading of the Marriage Equality Bill in parliament tonight Family First has sent out a bullying letter to all MPs giving them details of the impact their vote could have on their chances of re-election.

Family First managed to get only 15,000 pledges to vote against MPs if they supported the bill. One MP with one of the higher number of pledges against him (290) will be quaking in his boots, though he has a majority of over 15,000, so unless Family First managed to canvass just his electorate I think he is pretty safe.

If anything the family First organised pledge proves that bugger all (excuse the pun) people give a flying f*ck about this bill except those fundy, hand clappers, haters.  Read more »

Petal asks a valid question, in the post on Maurice Williamson’s stance on same-sex marriage. It is the same question which I have been bombarded with all day yesterday, but his is far more polite than the ranters who were emailing me. I’d love for Kevin Hague to write another guest post explaining Petal’s concerns so everyone can understand and we can cut through the emotive drivel put out by  Family First.

I had a chat with you about a month ago when you took the time to have a short but serious discussion with me, and I really understood, for the first time, where you are coming from in terms of your need for “equality”. And I support you in that aim. I “get it”.

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t care that the words “bride” and “bridegroom” may disappear from marriage licences, to be perhaps changed to “spouse”.

Even though I’m still completely in your corner, I mourn the loss of the idea that the price of equality for you is the loss of a bride and a groom from official state law and/or documentation. It doesn’t sit well with me, and I hope there is going to be someone who can create a more inclusive solution rather than to make it completely sterile of language that has been completely normal for a long, long time.

Why do straight couples have to lose something for gay couples to become equal? It was your aim to be equal, not to reduce the concept of marriage to something less than it was before, for any of us.  Read more »

Maurice Williamson has an opinion piece in the Howick and Pakuranga Times on Marriage Equality:

GAY marriage – so what? The way some people have been carrying on during the gay marriage debate alarms me.

I’ve had people bellowing down the phone to me and my staff at both my electorate office and office at Parliament.

The general flavour from those opposed is the world is about to fall apart if the Marriage Amendment Bill is passed.

Some think its passing will somehow devalue their marriage. I can tell you this now – it won’t.

I’ve had a Catholic priest advocating that I’m supporting something that’s so unnatural – interesting from one who has vowed to be celibate for his entire life.

In the mid 1980s, people claimed the same thing of the homosexual law reform.

At that time some of the most ghastly outcomes were prophesied. Fortunately, none of those outrageous consequences came to pass.  Read more »

Kevin Hague blogs about the words both for and against marriage equality that he received in correspondence.

The debate over Louisa Wall’s marriage equality bill has been raging for almost a year now, and I have received thousands of emails and letters, as well as having read many thousands of submissions during the Select Committee process…

We looked for a graphic way of representing this contrast, and used a “sample” of all the correspondence that arrived in my office over a particular time to create word clouds. It’s not science. It’s not discourse analysis. But it makes the point.  Read more »