GAY MARRIAGE IN THE UK

From the AP site Big Story, courtesy of Eschaton:

With little fanfare or controversy, Britain announced Wednesday that Queen Elizabeth II — hardly a social radical — had signed into law a bill legalizing same-sex marriages in England and Wales. France has also legalized gay marriages, but only after a series of gigantic protests attracting families from the traditional heartland that revealed a deeply split society.

Official word that the queen had approved the bill drew cheers in the usually sedate House of Commons.

And

"The opposition seemed restricted to a very small number of people very vigorous in their views," said Steven Fielding, a political scientist at the University of Nottingham. "It was restricted to the back benchers of the Conservative Party. It wasn't shared across the political spectrum. It was an issue whose time had come. To oppose it seemed slightly strange."

More here.

Yes, this is very good news for gays in Britain.  I mean, obviously.  But I think it bodes quite well for gays in the US, too.  To be sure, Americans don't take their cues about life, the universe, and everything from the Brits.  But the Brits are our mother culture.  There is, as the diplomats say, a "special relationship" between the US and the UK.  There is definitely a cultural back and forth between them and us.  So what's "normal" there has some influence on what's "normal" here.  That is, it's just another brick in the wall of inevitability for gay marriage in America.  

I should also add that more freedom and equality is better for everybody, not just gays and lesbians.

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