RSS
Home
LGBT work to expand rights in the U.K.
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Since 2000, the U.K. has witnessed dramatic changes in the social and legal acceptance of its gay subjects. While hate crimes continue to be a major problem, gay people have seen their lives vastly improved over the past 9 years with major changes in the country’s legal code.
Significant changes included allowing gays to serve openly in the military in 2000; transgender people were finally allowed to legally change their gender in 2001. In 2002, the age of consent was equalized between gay and straight individuals, In 2003, Anti-discrimination laws in employment were passed and the 1988 law (Section 28) declaring local governments and schools ("shall not intentionally promote Homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" or "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship") was repealed.
2004 witnessed the Sexual Offences Act go into force which removed all specific references to homosexuals and differing legal treatment of them. 2006 was the year for gay parents in which gay partners could adopt. In 2007, the U.K. finally began addressing hate crimes with proposed amendments to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.
In January, 2009, same-sex activists in Scotland launched a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for legalization of gay marriage. The Petition seeks to amend the 1977 Marriage Act and reform the Civil Partnership Act of 2004. This U.K.-wide Act allows same-sex partners to register their relationships as a Civil Union, enjoying all the benefits currently provided for in civil marriage.
Nick Henderson, Director for The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Network (LGBT Network), said the current laws against same-sex marriage were unfair and "Equality means all citizens should be treated the same, and that everyone must have the same rights under law.
"Yet the status quo ensures a system of one law for straight couples and another for gay couples.
"Whatever the similarities between civil partnerships and marriage separate but equal is inherently unequal.
"Marriage is the strongest word we have for a declaration of total love and commitment to one another; and to deny any person that opportunity is to deny the full measure of dignity and humanity that we are all endowed with?"
The petition, if passed by the Scottish Parliament, would also allow same-sex weddings to be performed by clergy (if their denomination recognizes gay marriage) to officiate the ceremony. Under current law, no religious figure may legally preside over a Civil Union, only a registrar.
The LGBT Network’s Henderson said: "We want to see gay couples being allowed to have a religious, as well as a civil marriage, if the faith group allows it. There is a huge diversity of opinion among faith groups on same sex marriage - churches, temples and synagogues should be able to decide if they want to marry couples or not. The Government is wrong to assume that being religious and being LGBT are incompatible with each other. Nor should the state say that one religious group is right and the other is wrong."
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
