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The Daily Dish - 2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan

Homphobia In America, Ctd

By The Daily Dish
Mar 7 2009, 4:03 AM ET

After I linked to Gordon Brown's condemnation of Prop 8 as "unacceptable," it occurred to me that on this, as on many things, Brown is full of it. What Prop 8 was about was whether gay couples deserved the civil right to marry, as opposed to domestic partnerships with all the state (but not federal) benefits of marriage. But this is Brown's own position. Britain does not recognize civil marriages for gay couples. It has the "separate but equal" institution of "civil partnerships." This is much better than the US, whose federal government still denies gay couples any legal standing at all, denies them social security spousal benefits, taxation as married couples, immigration rights, etc. But it is no better than California today.

But if Brown really does believe that the current resolution of Prop 8 is unacceptable, he can always introduce legislation in Britain to provide full marriage equality for gay couples, as exists in other European countries. Why won't he?



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