Had a great time at the Equal Marriage reception at the Scottish Parliament last night. A brilliant mixture of lots of good speakers, lots of great people and wedding cake.
There was a great opening speech from Rae Cahill of the Scottish Youth Parliament. Then, very much enjoyed hearing Rabbi Mark Solomon of the Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community. Great and very moving speeches also from a couple who are caught in the bind of being required to divorce before one of them can legally be recognised in a changed gender, even though they wish to remain married.
Half time entertainment from the Edinburgh Gay Men’s Chorus and then it was on to some rousing stuff from MSPs from all the Scottish Political parties.
The clear message was that this isn’t an issue of party politics, it is an issue of consensus politics. Scotland has moved to a point where a majority of people believe that the law needs to be changed to allow gay couples to wed on the same basis as straight couples.
That majority runs through the membership of political parties and is apparent in the membership of Scotland’s main churches. It is an idea whose time has come and last night’s reception was a hugely encouraging step along the journey to equality.
Was great to meet up with MSPs, congregation members, fellow bloggers (including Caron Lindsay – yay!) and all manner of people of goodwill from all over Scotland. The place was packed out and people were in high spirits. One of those events when you can smell that change is on it’s way.
Huge respect to the Equality Network for bringing it all off and getting the press release together showing that all the opposition party leaders in the Parliament are now on board. (The SNP can’t comment as the Executive is still in a consultation process, though Alex Salmond’s support is on record too).
¡Muchas felicidades!
These are some important major steps forward. I hope & pray that the change comes soon for Scotland.
Many folks do not realize that legal marriage is now available in all of Mexico. The Legislative Assembly of the Federal District, which is home to the major part of Mexico City, passed legislation in 2009, which became effective in 2010, allowing same sex civil marriage. Civil marriage is the only legal marriage in Mexico. Backed by the RC church, this law was constitutionally challenged later in 2010 before the Mexican Supreme Court. The justices first ruled 5 AUG, that the law was constitutional, in an 8 to 2 decision. (One justice was absent.) On 10 AUG the court ruled 9 to 2, that the Mexico City marriages were legally valid in all 31 states of the Mexican Union and the Federal District.
Many same sex couples now honeymoon in Mexico City and have their civil marriage performed while there.