Gay marriage is now legal in the UK

Why though?

Erm. It is the Churches decision? They're not going to be forced to marry same-sex couples.

In the same way the mormons wouldn't allow somebody who is a member of their church and has been given permission to visit a temple to partake their sacred vows, I would argue that religious marriage (I have no problem with a secular marriage or as it's better know a civil partnership) should have been off-bounds.

A civil partnership is a very different thing to a civil marriage, as far as the law is concerned. The only religions which will marry same-sex couples are those that have explicitly opted in to doing so, and even then individual ministers cannot be compelled to perform the marriage against their conscience.

I just read up on the actual changes. I misunderstood what had happened. (ie. I hadn't bothered to actually check)

Secular marriage giving all the same rights to homosexual partners as heterosexual partners while also giving religious groups the opportunity to opt in is certainly a good thing.

It's not what I personally would have gone for, but I think the compromise that has been worked out about same-sex marriage and religious freedom is a reasonable one. Perhaps more to the point, I'm confident that the Supreme Court and ECtHR will see it that way too.

Oh. Have I misunderstood the new changes? I thought this was parliamentary.

Erm. It was parliamentary, but for Churches it's opt-in, they can choose whether to marry same-sex couples or not.

"David Cameron tweets congratulations as same-sex marriages are held in England and Wales for the first time"

This threads not against homosexuals but do you think England will benefit from this?
Will England become hostile, aggressive and abusive to the gay couples or will it provide sanctuary for them after years of abuse?


EDIT: By benefit I meant for the citizens of England, in terms of equality

I've got it now. I think I was partially misinformed, drunk and tired

All for the changes as long as we keep it secular with a religious opt in.

What would you have preferred?

Personally I think that anyone, religious or otherwise, who performs a legally binding marriage it's acting as an agent of the state and should therefore be subject to the Equality Act. So religions can control their own marriage rites, but if they want them to be recognised by the law they have to offer them to everybody equally just as a registrar does.

That's more to do with my inherent secularism than anything else.

Yeah, I'm fairly content with the changes they made, although it's not ideal. But opt-in seems like the best compromise.

Theoretically, what if religious and state marriages were different things and the religious marriage had no bearing on the law except of that of the church? Would you feel content?

In other words we strip religious marriage of anything that actually means anything outside their religion and it's just a vow before their god.

Absolutely disgusting

What, your attitude?

No

should never have been allowed to happen . The leaders of the west are slowly loosing their morals and their marbles .

should never have been allowed to happen . The leaders of the west are slowly loosing their morals and their marbles .