Equal marriage supporters are on the right side of history

One of the most welcome aspects of the recent Scottish Labour Conference was the strong support given to same-sex marriage by Ed Miliband and Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont. Like many other parliamentarians, councillors, members and trade unionists in Dundee, I was proud to sign the Equal Marriage pledge. The campaign has growing cross-party support both in Scotland and across the UK, reflecting the strong public view that where two people in a loving relationship wish to marry, and make a public commitment of their relationship, they should be able to do so, whatever their gender or sexuality.

61% of the Scottish public back a change in the law, including 57% of Scottish Catholics. It is not so long ago that Scottish Catholics experienced huge discrimination in society, so it is unsurprising that they are progressive in attitude when it comes to eliminating prejudice wherever it is suffered.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, announcing the Obama Administration’s Global Equality Fund to support human rights groups protecting LGBT people, on International Human Rights Day last year: gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.

For most people, the right to marry is an issue of equality and human rights. Equal marriage is not about devaluing the institution of marriage, but making it available to others, and treating straight and gay relationships equally. US conservative commentators were made to look foolish by arguing that same-sex unions reduced levels of heterosexual marriage in Scandinavia – in fact the opposite is true. As the openly-gay Australian Government Minister Penny Wong said at the 2011 Australian Labor Party Conference which made same-sex marriage part of its policy platform:

“Equality does not diminish the worth of your relationships. It simply recognises the worth of ours”.

We live in a plural democracy. Opponents of same-sex marriage are free to campaign against these reforms. For those using language, however, which causes huge offence to the LGBT community and to many other people, such as equating gay relationships with slavery, simply diminishes their credibility in the eyes of wider society, particularly where they have progressive records on other issues such as the elimination of global poverty and hunger. In my view they are on the wrong side of history.

It also makes the struggle to root out homophobic behaviour in society more difficult. Across the world, Governments restricting the freedoms of or who commit acts of repression or violence against LGBT people, like those in Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Belarus, are being rightly condemned, taken on, and marginalised.

But even in democratic states, discrimination lingers. In the United States, gender and sexual equality have dominated much of the debate in this year’s campaign for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. Rick Santorum’s offensive statements about the LGBT community have cost him support in the Catholic community, given that a recent New York Times poll shows some 69% of US Catholics support either equal marriage or civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

Rolling Stone magazine recently described how in Michelle Bachmann’s home district in Minnesota, young LGBT people face abuse, violence, and attempts to “cure them” through therapy. They face a culture which tells them this is a step they have chosen, rather than as any rational person knows, simply part of the person they were born as. Tragedies like the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a young gay college student, have led to a surge of support for the “It Gets Better” campaign, seeking the end of homophobic bullying and intolerance in the US.

The new Jamaican Government of Prime Minister Portia Simpson has pledged to repeal anti-gay laws and to tackle head-on discrimination against gay men and lesbians in a society described by Time magazine in 2006 as one of the most homophobic on the planet.

It is astonishing that as recently as 1980 in Scotland, it was a crime for two gay men to express their sexuality and love, even in private. Being able to share love and have that commitment recognised by society is part of what makes us human. I am proud that in Britain, backed by Parliaments at Holyrood and Westminster, and with a high level of public goodwill, we will soon hopefully join ten other nations, like Argentina, South Africa, Spain and Canada, and be a beacon for tolerance and equality, by legislating for equal marriage.

William Bain is the MP for Glasgow North East