Comments on: Foreign Secretary backs UN statement on LGBT human rights

By: apYrs

apYrs — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:27:49 +0000

It is interesting, but disappointing, to note that the US failed to sign the statement because it would violate the separation of states and federal govt. This argument could have been made for the desegregation laws!

As always, politicians pander to the least civilised elements in order to "keep the peace", while hoping the proponents of equality will keep fairly quiet and be grateful for what they get.

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By: PCG, Portugal

PCG, Portugal — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:09:09 +0000

Mr Miliband is a decent British man. I would not expect him do anything else from him. He is great, he supports everything that is good for Britain. I hope he succeeds failing Mr Brown.

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By: Anders

Anders — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:24:35 +0000

The issue with Civil Partnership -v- Marriage in UK is related to the fact that the Church of England is the established Church. It is effectively obliged to perform marriage rites for anybody. And this is where the Civil Partnership legislation would have hit the buffers if it was instead referred to as "Gay Marriage" or even "Marriage".
The different name for it was so that the legislation would pass through Commons and Lords, as indeed it did.
So until and unless the Church of England is disestablished (and I can't see that happening quickly) or the separation between State ceremonies and religious ceremonies is firmly created I cannot see the UK changing the name of the legal status which we can now take on as same-sex couples.
Either way, good that UK supports this statement.

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By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:48:15 +0000

"Milliband looks like he is trying to curry favour with gay groups despite the fact that his own party refused to grant gay people the right to marry." Let's be fair here: the current Government has done far more to promote and support LGBT rights than any other British Government I can think of, and the decision to offer civil partnerships instead of 'marriage'was, I suspect, more pragmatic than ideological. The bigots had to be given some sop to their spitefulness without which the probability of getting the existing legislation through parliament would have been greatly reduced. What's surprises me most about this resolution is that it was apparently supported by all 27 EU states – including Poland, therefore….

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By: Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:42:38 +0000

The UN statement certainly shows that the struggle for LGBT rights is far from over. In the UK for example gay people do not have the right to get married and religious facists are trying their hardest to have exemptions granted to religious groups so they do not have to treat people equally. Milliband looks like he is trying to curry favour with gay groups despite the fact that his own party refused to grant gay people the right to marry.

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