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Yesterday the UK’s House of Commons overwhelmingly approved the equal marriage bill by a vote of 400 to 175. A full 70% of MPs, more than a supermajority, voted for civil equality.
How does the UK’s anti-gay Coalition for Marriage respond to their sound defeat? “I am pleased that we achieved a very strong ‘no’ vote”.
Shades of National Organization for Marriage claiming yesterday that they “defeated a lame-duck session bill in Illinois that would have legalized same-sex marriage” just as an Illinois state Senate committee passed the bill and sent it to the Senate floor.
Spin, it’s what’s for breakfast when you pretend you’re not eating crow.
2 Comments
They’re calling 175 against 400 a “very strong ‘no’ vote”? Please stop — my sides hurt.
Although there was a vast majority that voted YES for equal marriage, in reality, of the 175 opposed, 136 actually voted NO, almost half of the conservative party. Of the remaining Conservative MPs, 127 were in favour, 35 did not vote, and five registered an abstention by voting both in favour and against. So the 400-175 should actually be 400-136 of votes cast.
The Coalition for Marriage are trying to save face. They refuse to concede that the vote was overwhelmingly for equal marriage. They never mention that. They were expecting 75% of the party would vote no, but it didn’t pay off for them by any stretch of the imagination. A super majority om favor makes it that much harder to delay passage in the upper chamber, the House of Lords. Even if it were sent back to the Commons, the Parliament Act will probably be invoked to override the upper chamber and hasn’t been ruled out by the Conservative leadership. It will pass either way, sooner or later. It was an historic vote with the largest government consultation in British political history for any legislation. The win was a huge victory for equality and equal marriage in the UK.