(Independent) Parliament Votes for Same Sex Marriage Bill

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Members of Parliament tonight overwhelming endorsed historic legislation that will give gay couples the equal right to marry.

Almost half a century after homosexuality was legalised in Britain the House of Commons voted by a majority of 400 to 175 to redefine marriage and make it available to all.

But embarrassingly for David Cameron he failed to get a majority of his own MPs to support the move. 139 Tories, including two cabinet ministers, rebelled against the Government with just 132 supporting the measure. There were 75 abstentions.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

4 Comments
Posted February 5, 2013 at 3:01 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Katherine wrote:

Sic transit gloria mundi.

February 5, 7:39 pm | [comment link]
2. Katherine wrote:

I see by articles linked at Anglican Mainstream that this is not a vote which enacts the bill as law.  It moves it a step along in the process.  What hope is there that this will ultimately fail?

February 5, 7:50 pm | [comment link]
3. Terry Tee wrote:

Katherine, the House of Lords can in theory reject the bill, but is unlikely to do so.  Even although the largest group there are crossbenchers, ie independents, there is a deeply held tradition that the peers only vote down the legislation of the lower house if it contravenes the constitution.  You might be surprised to hear that we have one; it is ‘unwritten’ ie has accrued by convention, precedence and recognition.

February 6, 12:56 pm | [comment link]
4. Terry Tee wrote:

Addendum:  of course, Katherine, the Queen could in theory refuse to sign the act which brings the legislation into law.  But the monarch would never act contrary to parliament’s expressed wishes.  In cases like this her largely symbolic role as governor of the Church of England is meaningless.

February 6, 12:58 pm | [comment link]
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