Scotland is famous for many things, including Alan Cumming, Alan Cumming’s accent, and Alan Cumming’s accent in a kilt.
HEY it’s that guy from The L Word!
And now! Now Scotland can also proudly declare itself the 17th(-ish) country to tell its rainbow-flavoured citizens, “Go forth and marry the f*ck outta each other, queermos.” Today, the Parliament passed the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill with an overwhelming majority (105 to 18) as MSPs were given a free vote unconstrained by party loyalties.
I’m not sure what’s going on here but I like it.
via Reuters
In our UK LGBT Politics Crash Course, we highlighted three areas of concern with regard to the England and Wales Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act. Here’s how Scotland fares on the same scorecard:
- Transphobia: No spousal veto for Scotland! With the hard work of the Equality Network and Scottish Transgender Alliance, MSPs voted unanimously to remove the clause that required married trans* people to obtain the permission of their spouse to have their gender legally recognised.
- Religious Exemptions: As in England and Wales, religious bodies can “opt in” to perform same-sex wedding rites (the Quakers, Buddhists and Pagan Federation have said they will), and an amendment to the Equality Act 2010 has been agreed upon to ensure no “persons who play an integral part in the religious or belief [i.e. not commercial] aspects of the marriage or civil partnership” can be punished for refusing to participate in a same-sex wedding. The Scottish Catholic Church and Church of Scotland have opposed this legislation every step of the way and have no plans to conduct same-sex marriages, but there is no legal ban barring them from doing so as is currently in place for the Church of England and Church in Wales.
- Neoliberalism: Sorry, radiqueers, our time is yet to come.
The next step lies in debating whether civil partnerships (currently a UK-level policy, unless Scotland gains independence in September this year) should be open to opposite-sex couples as well. In the meantime, go forth and marry the f*ck outta each other, queermos.
One fine day I will log on to Autostraddle and read “We Won a Bajillion Things” *paws crossed*
Ah, but every day we DO win a bajillion things. We win a thing every time we love and fuck and live even though so much stands in our way. And that’s something we don’t need any legislators to award us.
-^^- fist bump Fikri. I could hug you right now for that first sentence.
so much perfection and truth in three sentences.
omg Fikri <3. That is some damn *truth*.
Fist pumping in jubilation for this news! Congrats to the Scots :D
Yay Scotland! So pleased to see it won by a huge majority and that they also made generally better legislation – England and Wales take note!
So happy for my Scottish friends, and my English friends who still live in Scotland.
Nice one Scotland, great news, I only hope that when Ireland holds it’s referendum to change the definition of marriage in it’s constitution can follow suit in such an overwhelming way!
The wonderful people here at Autostraddle may or may not be aware of whats going on in Ireland but it seems those who have always lobbied against equal marriage and who were called out for being homophobes have stifled the debate because they are offened at being called homophobes, even though it is clear to all and sundry that they are in fact homephobic!
It seems now the debate has stalled around who gets to define homephobia in a rather neat way that prevents any forward movement on the debate for equal marriage!
This speech by the drag queen, Miss Panti has been doing the rounds and i’m just going to leave it here……
There is a lot more to this story than i can express here but maybe in 2015 Ireland will win a thing!!
For some reason, I really want to see this posted on Autostraddle. I almost can’t believe how the whole thing has snowballed… the initial interview and supposed defamation almost doesn’t matter in comparison to the debate that has sprung up in it’s wake.
Yes i felt the same, especially given the fact that geographically Ireland and Scotland are so close and I guess culturally we wouldn’t be too dissimilar yet the the contrast between whats going on is astounding.
Even in Ireland I’m shocked by how many people are not aware of whats going on so I wouldnt be too surprised if the rest of the world was still catching up!
I didnt really want to drag down a positive piece but the more momentum this ‘debate’ gets the better in my opinion!
Thank you for posting this video!! I just saw it yesterday and was thinking of emailing it to the AS team if it didn’t pop up on here. So so good!
Hahaha. Awesome. Fikri was the Alan Cumming love inspired by Gray Matters at all?
THAT SHOW NEEDS TO BE BANNED
START PETITIONING YOUR MPS TODAY
Gray Matters has a special place in my heart as the terrible film my uni’s LGBT society showed at the film night where I met my girlfriend. I seem to remember that Alan Cumming’s character’s flat was decked out in full tartan, everywhere? Because that’s just how the Scots roll, obviously.
He also said things like “wee” and “dandy” excessively. HETEROSEXUAL ALAN CUMMING HURT MY WEE QUEER HEART SO BAD.
Yes! There is a scene where he makes her a hot toddy and she is lying under a tartan blanket and he offers her some shortbread. SO SCOTTISH.
So much joy! Packing my wedding kilt now…