Has the sudden shift in the Thatcherite party line caused a sea change in your thinking. Are you now for equality?

What is a shame, and what bears repeating, is the fact that Mr Milliband’s dad, Ralph, was a dedicated and sincere political figure, who used his intelligence in far less a self-serving way than the Millibands seem to have.

this is an interesting article

http://gaymarriageissues.com/chilean-senator-introduce-gay-marriage-bill-1007659a

Chilean Senator To Introduce Gay Marriage BillOn Top Magazine | 9 hours ago

Chilean Senator Fulvio Rossi announced Sunday he’ll introduce a gay marriage bill shortly

Chilean Senator Fulvio Rossi announced Sunday he’ll introduce a gay marriage bill shortly, the Spanish news agency EFE reported.

The announcement follows quick on the heels of Latin America’s first gay marriage law taking effect in Argentina.

The proposal does not include the adoption of children, but Rossi told reporters he hopes to debate the measure at a later date.

The measure is being backed by Carolina Taho, incoming president of the Partido por la Democracia (PPD) party.

“We do not think gay people have fewer rights to build stable relationships than heterosexuals,” Taho said. “On the contrary, we think they are citizens who are entitled to live their lives once the legislation gives them the conditions to do so safely.”

Lawmakers are already considering a set of reforms called the Acuerdo de Vida en Comun (AVC) which would give both gay and straight couples all the rights and obligations of marriage. The legislation would be similar to civil union laws adopted by several states in the United States.

The AVC has already stirred controversy and many lawmakers are not interested in voting on the measure so close to elections later this month.

Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz, the archbishop of Santiago, spoke out Saturday against Argentina’s gay marriage law.

“It may be that two people, two men or two women, want to live together and share life, but to call that marriage is an aberration,” he said.

Rossi called on the Roman Catholic Church “to be more tolerant” and said the cardinal’s statements had “caused immense pain.”

While Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has publicly backed the AVC, his party, the Renovacio Nacional, has already rejected the idea of legalizing gay marriage in the Catholic stronghold.

Since the legalization of gay marriage in Argentina, neighboring Uruguay and Paraguay have announced plans to consider similar measures.

I resent that such creatures, such shameless career politicians, populate our parliament, which should be an institution for the enoblement and benefit of mankind, and not for the advancement of a career.

I thought Summerskill’s idea of training straight guys about gay CPs by having an additional box on their tax return for CPs somewhat bizarre, an extra box/category means that you are different and that you don’t have to be treated in the same way as married couples … we are now ,more or less , but that extra box/category means that there is an option to diverge……

Don’t know what happened there. Got excited and turned Jamaican.

Not ALL straight people want marriage either but no one sees that as a valid reason to deny it to those who do.

I’ve got new for Mr. Summerskill, not ALL gays think homosexuality/sodomy should be legal. Not ALL gays think gay people should be out and open about their sexuality. There is NOTHING that ALL gays agree on, including NONE of the things that Mr. Summerskill thinks ARE important and worth fighting for. So if that’s he answer to why he doesn’t fight for marriage then he should just shut down Stonewall and be out of a job because he reasoning could just as well be applied to ANY gay rights issue.

Again I say, TWIT!

The article says

“-Another criticism often levelled at the organisation is its acceptance of civil partnerships as opposed to marriage, something some critics have described as “sexual apartheid”.

“Well, the issue on marriage is that again, there are a lot of vocal supporters, but the thing they’ve always focused on is actually the real rights and entitlements. As I said, we know there are quite a lot of gay and lesbian people who wouldn’t want marriage, and some have explicitly said so. I think Antony Sher [the gay actor and playwright] gave an interview a while back where he said ‘If it was marriage, I wouldn’t want it. It recognises what’s special about me and my partner.’ And we know there are lots of lesbians who actually don’t want marriage.”

When questioned about those who do want gay marriage, Summerskill said: “Well, someone people do and they’re perfectly entitled to express their views. We are one of many, many organisations but at the end of the day, in terms of our priorities, what we’ve always focused on, is absolutely practical hard outcomes which make a real difference to people’s lives … The reality is half the population already call civil partnerships marriage anyway.”

“It’s one of Stonewall’s ways of working. We’re always more interested in things that make a real, practical difference to people’s lives than perhaps just an intellectual and academic name. And my own view is that civil partnerships have been quite a remarkable piece of what used to be called in the old days ‘political education’.

“We can never go back to the days when I was young, even just 30 years ago, when MPs would stand up in parliament and say ‘Well I don’t know anyone who’s homosexual’. Forty million people are getting a tax return that acknowledges that laws for gay people exist in long term relationships, they’re actually kind of learning something that they wouldn’t if all you had to do was ticked a ‘married’ box. They would have continued being able to be in denial.”

http://earwicga.wordpress.com/2010/07/30/ed-miliband-unclear-on-gay-marriage-equality-on-the-island-of-love/

“Would you allow gays to be legally married, rather than just be registered as a civil partnership?

He hesitates. “I will listen to what people have to say on going further than that if there is a demand. No one has yet put that to me in the leadership election.” He said his feeling was that not enough people were asking for the policy.

Ed answered that he had only been asked about marrige equality once before, but then went on to say “I’m very happy to support gay marriage” before adding that there would have to be a consultation. He got confused about civil partnerships, saying that “they were available to everyone” which he recognised was a mistake when I pointed out that they aren’t. Apparently “civil partnership was a massive step”, which I suppose it was, but nothing that couldn’t be reasonably expected, and still only a stepping stone to actual equality. I was then told he would talk about it after the formal section of the meeting, which he did. Ed said that he had spoken to LGBT groups during the election campaign and nobody had talked about marriage equality. I pointed out that there are a lot of people campaigning about this, but he seemed underwhelmed and asked me irritably “was it an election issue?”. I think he needed his lunch at this point. But the lack of a simple answer points me to believe that Ed simply doesn’t understand that a two tier system of civil partnerships and marriage isn’t just an issue for elections, but a fundamental issue of equality for the ‘ordinary’ people he had been talking about during the whole session.

Shame really, as it has been reported on Liberal Conspiracy that Diane Abbott, Andy Burnham (in the Tablet no less!) and Ed Balls have all previously confirmed their support for gay marriage, and this morning Ed’s brother, David, published a piece on his website in support. I have no idea why Ed Miliband couldn’t have just said a simple ‘yes, I support gay marriage’, but he didn’t.

Edit:

It’s not a simple yes, but when asked on Twitter earlier about marriage equality, Ed Miliband tweeted this:

Ed_Miliband @JaeKay Got asked abt this today &made clear I support principle of gay marriage. Need to consult on how to implement.

”

Interesting interview!!!! I wonder if pinknews knwo if this is legit?