The Queen of England today approved legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, the last formal step in their legislative process. But couples will have to wait until 2014 to get married. The country already has civil partnerships. Churches will not have to conduct those weddings if they do not want to.
The law will allow same-sex couples to marry in religious services where the religious organization has “opted in” as well as at civil ceremonies. Couples with civil partnerships will be able to convert them into marriages and people in heterosexual marriages will be able to change gender and stay married.
Well done, England and Wales!
I always said we were a civilised lot.
I’m sure Oscar Wilde thought so.
About bloody time.
And Alan Turing
I meant the people rather than the lawmakers; it just took them a long time to catch up with public opinion.
Yeah what they did to Turing is one of the saddest things I think I’ve ever heard of.
Drop your empire, gain your civilisation. This can be observed in GB, the larger continental states of the EU, and even (historically) Scandanavia. I wonder how long it will take to get this idea across the Atlantic. (Oh, and let us not neglect China.)