U.K. Tories Back Full Marriage Equality

In yet another sign that so-called American conservatives and the GOP have ceased to be mainstream - indeed, as Andrew Sullivan argues, the GOP is now "a religious movement with radically reactionary political objectives" - and are slipping further and further into a fringe mindset, the United Kingdom's conservative government (Prime minister Cameron is pictured at right) has come out in support of fully marriage equality for same sex couples. The Independent looks at this development which few would have expected just a few years ago. It shows how conservatism does not require one reject medical and scientific knowledge out of hand in a desperate attempt to inflict punishment on those who do not submit to a particular set of religious beliefs. Here are highlights from the Independent article:

Lib Dem Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone today declared herself "delighted" to announce the Government's move to legislate for same-sex marriages before the next general election.

Addressing the opening day of her party's autumn conference in Birmingham, she spoke passionately about the need to reject prejudice and discrimination, and support the cause of women's equal rights and persecuted minorities across the world.

To rounds of applause, she said: "I am delighted to announce today that in March this Government will bring in a formal consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage for same-sex couples.

She added: "Civil partnerships were a very welcome first step, but as our constitution states, this party rejects prejudice and discrimination in all its forms. And I believe that to deny one group of people the same opportunities offered to another, is not only discrimination, it is simply not fair."

The Boston Globe was quick (and justified) to call out the GOP and its increasingly irrational and unjustified prejudice against same sex couples in the USA:

Today’s announcement that the Conservative government in Britain will push legislation to legalize same-sex marriage may shake up politics in the United Kingdom. But for the party of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to reverse itself on the issue may have just as significant an effect on politics in the United States.

The British Conservative Party has long been a model for Republicans; GOP presidential candidates invariably cite Churchill and Thatcher as heroes for articulating the fundamental tenets of conservatism. . . . . Now Cameron has decided that same-sex marriage fits just fine with his party’s cherished conservative values. The question is, will the reversal force Republicans into rethinking their position on gay marriage — or for that matter, their longstanding relationship with the Conservative Party?

While both parties share much in common, a key difference is that social conservatives — a strong contingent in the US — are not a factor in British politics. Same-sex marriage remains taboo to Christian conservatives, a constituencies that no GOP contender wants to alienate.

There are a few rumblings from some more libertarian-leaning conservatives in the US that it might be time for the party to moderate its opposition to same-sex marriage. GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah, has stated that he supports civil unions, which are still anathema to the religious right.

[T]he shift by the British Conservatives to support same-sex marriage probably won’t lead to a sudden change of heart in the GOP. But their reversal shows how the political momentum for same-sex marriage is growing in the Western world, and signals that the Republican Party’s stance is growing increasingly out of step with even its closest ideological peers.