to feel despair at the gay marriage vote

I would sincerely hope so Greatnan but sadly she may not be around to find out.

Do you think anything we have said has changed mollie's outlook?

The times are a'changing, Jess

OUr local paper has on the front page a positive accolade for our gay tory MP who spoke in favour of the bill. It is an extremely positive and sympathetic piece. The other tory MP for the other side of the city voted against. This gets a separate and disapproving mention on an inside page.
here's the article. Never thought I'd see the day
Here it is:
www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/local/how-mp-iain-stewart-became-an-internet-sensation-after-same-sex-marriage-speech-1-4761835

Thank you, gran4!!

I think you have hit the nail on the head Greatnan and ginny my mum just doesn't understand that anyone can be a homosexual at all. She once commented to me that "people who turned gay were just bored and wanted a change" .

I must point out that she is a lovely gentle lady who is extremely naive and has a very blinkered view of the world.

My daughters best friend lives with her female partner and they had a civil partnership ceremony las year. My mum still asks "yes but which one is the boy?"

Thanks. I appreciate these messages!

Just so Gran4. Sadly many inter racial marriages are still not always accepted and I may say even sometimes different parts of the 'christian' religions (e.g. catholic/protestant). Also know of a couple ,jewish and catolic who have been dissowned by one side.

I think many of us will be celebrating with and for you, gran4.

That is great gran4 and welcome. I think the "fors" are in the majority on this thread?
You must be looking forward to the full legislation being made law so you can plan a great celebration.

As a lesbian, mother and grandmother of four, I do feel terribly dismayed at some of the beliefs and attitudes expressed towards the idea of "gay" marriage. I believe in marriage between two people who love one another and are committed to each other, and who want the same rights as everyone else. After all, we have the same responsibilities which we take very seriously.. I remember with a shudder when intermarriage was frowned on, when inter racial couples were subjected to the most awful hatred and bigotry. Thankfully times have changed and we no longer have to live with such small minded attitudes. Shame on you so called Christians...where is love, acceptance and tolerance? Fortunately, in my own community my partner of 8 years and I will be able to marry and I look forward to it.

It's simple, surely... If you don't like the idea of same sex marriage, then DON'T DO IT. But don't make life a misery for others who don't agree with you.

If homosexual relations were so unnatural, they would not occur in so many species.

It's funny: when some American religious blow-hard fulminates against "the gays", many of us look at one another and take bets on how long it will be before he is caught with a rent boy!

Gillybob, I think they cannot accept a gay relationship at all not just the marriage part. My MIL is one of them and uses the 'Q' word to describe them. I'm sure she thinks they are some other life form. She is unaware that two of our friends are in a gay relationship and she thinks they are lovely. Make us giggle.

I've read all your posts with great interest, fellow-netters. Personally, I feel that if two people of any/either sex wish to commit to each other in a public ceremony, that's fine. What I do find ridiculous, and discriminatory, is that civil partnerships do not exist for hetero couples as well as gays. This is an anomaly in the law that needs amending.
Meanwhile, to any members of your families/friends getting married one way or another this weekend - Mazeltov!

A lot of people cannot come to terms with homosexuality in any way but that is their problem.
An interesting aricle I read somewhere - many homosexual men are homophobic and most gay men are actually married to women. I am hoping that the new attitudes will eventually encourage everyone to accept their own sexuality and gay men will not have to live double lives and, very often, ruin the lives of the women they marry. (I have personal experience of the devastation a woman feels when she finds her husband has been having gay affairs.)

I get the impression that at the end of the day, the royals will always do just whatever suits them anyway......anyone who steps in their way will probably be sent to the tower or have their head chopped off

Incidentally my mum disagrees with the gay marriage bill. When I asked her why she just said "its just not natural". I do think there are probably people (like my mum) who although they are not particularly religious cannot come to terms with the whole idea of gay people marrying.

Besides, weren,t those ones written in by religious people, who made up the rules anyway, because it was monks and their ilk who had the power because they had the education and the control of knowledge.

So even the valued traditions go back to religion, or at least religious control.

I see.

Which traditions though? Not the man owning all the property one, methinks. Not the one making women subservient and not equals. Valuable traditions? Pish.

Bags I think that there are quite a lot of people who don't want to see any change to a much valued and traditional institution. Others may not regard such objections as valid, but they are neither religious nor quasi-religious.

Yes, I do remember there being a last minute change of plan Absent. Heaven forbid any old peasant could get married in Windsor Castle !

Oh yes ginny I had totally forgot the, my husband and I, thank you for reminding me. I can imagine her saying it, with him shaking his head in the background !

oh bother it!

religous or quasi...

By the way, are there any objections to the gay marriage bill that aren't religious are quasi-religious? i.e. Are there any non-religious objections? I doubt it somehow.

By which I mean that a problem is a problem only if it can't be solved. If there are solutions, it ceases to be a problem.

It's not as if they weren't behaving as if they were man and wife before they were married . So long as they feel married, who cares what the law is? It doesn't affect the succession and if we ever get to a point where the succession is affected, the law will be changed or the monarchy will be abolished. So there isn't a problem really.