Exporting Gay Marriage to the United Kingdom

by Michael Jones · 2009-06-27 06:06:00 UTC
Topics:

UK Union Jack

England right now doesn't have gay marriage.  They have what they call "civil partnerships," a government-recognized commitment created by the government that allows gays and lesbians to receive many of the same benefits that married straight people receive in the United Kingdom.

But it's not marriage.  Instead, it's a separate system created exclusively for LGBT relationships.

And a new poll from UPI.com shows that UK citizens recognize that separate and unequal are not fair and just. The poll shows that 61 percent of the British public believes gay couples should be allowed to marry, and not just have access to civil partnerships.

The poll also touches on the subject of gay adoption:

The poll, commissioned by The Times of London and conducted by Populus, also found that nearly half said gay couples should have equal adoption rights, the newspaper reported Saturday.  [And] poll results indicated that 68 percent of the British public supports "full equal rights" for gay men and lesbians.

So sixty-one percent support marriage, not civil partnerships; 50 percent support the right of gays and lesbians to adopt; and 68 percent support "full equal rights" for LGBT people.  That sounds like an environment ripe for change.

(Photo courtesy of LondonSLR's photostream on Flickr.)

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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