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Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
133
London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
114
Tory MP Nadine Dorries: 'The gay marriage bill is taking the sex out of marriage'
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Philip Hammond: 'No great demand for gay marriage and it's upsetting vast numbers of people'
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Government to consider abolishing civil partnerships or opening up to straight couples
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Bret Easton Ellis slams GLAAD and says gay basketball player Jason Collins treated like a 'baby panda'
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US Radio host: Gay news websites are covered with porn that is turning teens gay
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Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather tells Catholic newspaper 'I never went into politics to tackle equal marriage'
59
Tory MP David Burrowes: 'I'm not anti-gay; I'm just pro-marriage'
57
Tory MP David Burrowes: I only want a referendum on same-sex marriage so I can defeat the government's bill
54
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SteveC 172
wow – that will change the world…
Yes, theotherone, in some small way it will. Acceptance has to start somewhere.
I wish I had someone to hold hands with at the moment…
Actually, Dutch gays have been doing this for years but then the Dutch have always been ahead of everyone else on equality issues. I’d like to see the same happen in the UK. We’ll expect a backlash from the usual suspects but then we have to remind them that straights have taken this privilege for granted and in some way shoving their sexual orientation down our throats. They’ll counter that by saying “its normal and accepted behaviour because they’re straight and in the majority”. Its much the same argument in America when proposition 8 passed, when the anti same-sex marriage foes exercised their tyranny of mob rule over the rights of a minority that is illegal anyway. I hope that kind of thing never happens in the U.K.
Brian Paddick, (Although once a Cop always a Cop) is one of the ‘Good Guys’ in my book. Everything he has said or done since leaving the Police has been in the interests of Gay people. Also I think Ex-Pat Brit, that you will find now in our society, there is far more tolerance than we give creadit for.
if you are thinking of taking part in this campaign, pleaee dont. IT IS DANGEROUS. Some parts of the counrty are still places where holding hands will get a reaction which could result in you being hurt. I live in an area if I did this I know I would suffer. Once again people not living in the real world , advising people that do , to do silly things that could result in a bad reaction.
In britain we don`t have marriage..Civil Partnership is a trade off.We didn`t need a prop 8 to religate us to the arse end of humanity.
BB: aceptance? Perhaps in some quarters and in some arias but on the whole? No, I find no greater aceptance.
BTW: who wants tolerance? I don’t want people to grudgingly accept my presence.
re Stephen: California has civil partnership too (called “domestic partnership”), offering all the rights of marriage but not the name. Prop 8 simply eliminated the right to marry for same-sex couples. It did not relegate gays to the “arse end of humanity”, but simply to the current status they have in the UK. The problem is that many in the UK do not see this, lecturing Californians for intolerance but not understanding that California is actually ahead on this issue: at least it *had* marriage at some point.
I’m just thankful for small mercies. Why? Because I have lived most of my life with one foot in prison because I’m homosexual. Since they abolished that barbaric law in the UK, I have slept much easier. You are not going to get the whole cake yet my friends, just a slice now and then. Oh! carry on fighting by all means, life is too short not to after all. Reports were called for after Lord Montague, Micheal Pitt-Rivers and Peter Wildblood were Jailed for Homosexual offences and even the movie ‘Victim’ helped too. I agree, there is still some distance to go and us being us, we’ll get there.
Brian Paddick is a braver man than I am. I certainly don’t feel comfortable stepping outside my front door with my boyfriend hand in hand. I guess it has to start somewhere, but almost everywhere I’ve lived you run the gauntlet of homophobic yobs if you make overt displays of affection in public.
I’m no Rosa Parks.
If I ever did attempt this it would only be after taking self-defence classes and investing in a bulletproof vest!
small little details makes the world change!!! hopefully people will get over… as me and my partner hold hands here in Sydney all the time. Some raise their eyebrows some just smile, and some STARED!
Love the idea but if you tried that where I live you’d end up with your head kicked in. Hope it works and hope even more that it spreads North!
This is incredibly sweet.
Never… as much as I love the idea of holding hands with my boyfriend in the street.. The risk of attack or abuse is far too high!
Men in many Arab cultures and in India do this automatically. I once spotted two Arab guys holding hands in the company of a third – who basically warned them to stop – as it was not accepted in the UK – The third person had been here longer – what a shame – the two friends (probably not gay) were new to the country and thought that holding hands with another guy was perfectly “normal” and natural thing to do, which it is of course.
Mihai Bucur: You *do* realize the Defense of Marriage Act prevents domestic partners, civil unions and same sex marriage from filing for federal benefits in the United States, right? Things like filing joint taxes, Social Security survivors benefits and the like? Not to mention it not being recognised in other states, means if you’re traveling and your partner gets hurt, you’re a$$ out when they’re in the hospital, since your union doesn’t exist. You’ll be stuck in the waiting room instead of at your partner’s side where you belong.
Until DoMA is repealed, even in the four states that DO allow same sex marriage, there still isn’t equality.
yes, Brian was a cop, yes Brian is Gay and yes, he is one of the good guys! However, there are a lot of straight male coppers who are also good guys; don’t assume all police are the “same” old homophobes as old please.
J Geetas (16):
The American writer, Herman Melville of ‘Moby Dick’ fame, found the same thing in the South Pacific Islands in the 1850′s. Not only were the guys holding hands, they wrapped their arms around each other’s shoulders nonchalantly, and life went on as usual.
From there to my holding hands with my partner in public in ‘liberal Canada’, not a chance; I’d rather die in a natural way.
The Paddicks make a very attractive couple.Also, very good role models, particularly for the younger generation, who now have with civil partnership some type of framework to strive for in their lives.
Good luck and all the best.
Brian Burton, I’m well aware of the great strides the UK has taken over the past five years, but there is still a long way to go. So far, no gay couples have the freedom of choice or the right to choose marriage rather than a civil partnership and a straight couple can’t opt for a civil partnership by choice. So the two really are not yet that equal. Either make both types of unions available to everyone or just one fits all. Separate is never equal.
Holding hands in public relates to freedom of speech. Once we start banning people from saying offensive things and worse yet ban others from entering the country for the same reason, that will open the door for right wing religious cultists and others in our own backyard to demand legislation to ban same-sex couples from holding hands and kissing in public, among other things that straight couples take for granted. I fully support Brian Paddick’s move. Our foes need to get over it and move on, they’re not the only ones in the world. We need to take a stand and let them see we’re not afraid of them. Their m.o. is to make us live in fear, why should we in spite of the consequences?