Makes me proud to be Scottish (!) I can't wait until 2015 though, I'm getting my civil partnership next year.
Ooooh does this mean we should all start eloping to gretnor green (or whatever the place was called) to get hitched?
Gretna Green (for those who don't know this is the first town across the border between England and Scotland where, straight, couples are able to get married between the ages of 16 and 18 without there parents consent (in England & Wales you can get married at 16 but need your parents consent if you are under 18). Looks live David Cameron has also reaffirmed his commitment to have Gay marriage in England & Wales by 2015 too so it will hopefully be a small window where Gretna Green is needed! Gay Marriage To Be Introduced In Scotland Finally a Tory (PM) policy I can agree with :wow:
I'd be surprised if the whole of the UK didn't get same-sex marriage at around the same time. I'm totally proud of Scotland, though; having lived in England and Scotland, I find that pretty much everything the government do there is better. Though I was reading The Times yesterday (it was free on the train, I'm a Guardian guy), and was a bit disappointed to see that they sounded pretty opposed to the whole thing. I wouldn't expect much else from News Corp, though…
I'm delighted at the news, I was always confident the government would legislate but there were a few days there that I thought they may chicken out because of the extremely vocal opposition from the Catholic church. But fair play, they stuck to their guns. It's obviously important that no religion is forced into conducting same-sex ceremonies if they don't want to, and this will be established in the bill. The Bill will provide equality for gay couples wishing to marry while protecting freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so it's a sensible move. It's weird to think that in a few years time I could get married.....I probably won't, but it's cool I'll have the right to
It seams that Scotland is being used as a guinea pig on various social policy changes and when the world doesn't end they put them on England & Wales - the Smoking ban in enclosed public spaces, minimum price on alcohol, and now equal marriage rights.... Northern Ireland tends to follow in it's own sweet time if they can get a government together... The only point I'm not clear on - is Scotland going to allow religious organisations to perform same-sex unions should they so desire? If so that's certainly a step further on than England & Wales where all same-sex unions will be civil ceremonies only (personally I don't care either way but I know some people will wish to get married in a religious ceremony).
^ from what I read, religious civil marriages will be allowed. I definitely agree that it's a bit odd for the rest of the UK to not be considering religious marriage yet.
