Andrew Kay is wondering how the government has managed to categorise equality

The Government consultation on same-sex marriage ended on Thursday 14 June. On the Home Office website they open with these words:“This consultation is about how to enable same-sex couples to have a marriage through a civil ceremony.

“Under current legislation a marriage can only be between a couple of the opposite sex i.e. a man and a woman. A marriage can be conducted on either religious premises through religious ceremony, or on secular (non-religious) premises through a civil ceremony.

“A civil partnership can only be between a same-sex couple i.e. either a man and a man or a woman and a woman, and can only be conducted through a civil ceremony. A civil partnership can take place on secular premises but can also be held on religious premises, if the religious organisation in question has allowed this to happen (but the ceremony has to remain a civil one). In all cases a civil partnership registration must be secular (non-religious.

“The new partnership status should be called “Happy””

“The government proposes to do the following:
Enable same-sex couples to get married through civil ceremonies.
Retain the option of civil partnerships for same-sex couples, including the ability to have a civil partnership registration on religious premises (on a voluntary basis and retaining the ban on any religious elements forming part of the registration).
Allow transsexual people to change their legal gender without having to legally end their existing marriage or civil partnership.
Allow couples currently in a civil partnership the option of ‘converting’
their existing civil partnership into a civil marriage.
Make no changes to how religious marriages are solemnized.”

Now call me stupid if you want, but when did equality come with separate categories? Equality means equality, one rule or one law for all. Why not have a new word to cover it all and then people of different faiths can chose to have their new found status blessed by that faith group? My suggestion is that the new partnership status should be called “Happy”. ‘My partner and I are happy’, ‘We plan to get happy some time soon’ etc, etc… it works for me.

Yet another list of status variables is simply further tokenism, foisted on us by politicians who think that the gay community will be easily appeased. Well we will not, even if it is only some of us who still believe that we have still to achieve equality in the UK, across Europe and on throughout the world. The marriage issue here, as important as it may be, is the tip of an ice-berg that conceals atrocities waged against homosexuals globally.