Full equality will only be achieved when civil partnerships are recognised as marriage, writes Waheed Alli

As our party makes the transition from government to opposition, it seems that everyone is suddenly ‘reflecting’: on the failures and successes of our time in government, on the choices now facing our movement, on the type of leader we want to elect. With the immediate responsibilities of power lifted, we’ve found a little more space in which to see the bigger picture.

Welcome to my world.

Despite a lifelong relationship with the Labour party, I have never worked in the front line of politics. Over the last thirteen years, I continued my work in television and in business. And when I contributed to debates in the Lords, it was only if I thought I had something unique to add to the discussion.

For me, then, it didn’t take an election defeat to see the bigger picture. With the day-to-day agony of Westminster always at one remove, I felt more aware of the bigger, longer journey that we were taking.

The gaffes, the PR victories and the by-election results will all fade. But the events with truly lasting impact will be the social changes we have seen in Britain – and among those, the most important for me have been the steps towards equality for gay people.

We began by righting some of the grossest wrongs handed to us by previous generations, like Section 28 and the unequal age of consent. We then moved on to legislate for positive rights: adoption rights, fertility rights, and, in 2004, the creation of civil partnerships.

Even into the final weeks of the last parliamentary session, I was proud to see that the energy for change hadn’t flickered out, as over 100 peers came to a late-night debate and overwhelmingly supported my amendment to the Equality Bill in a bipartisan vote. The amendment allowed religious groups who wish to do so – like Liberal Jews, Quakers and Unitarians – to conduct civil partnerships at their places of worship. It was a huge step, and a fitting end to the series of reforms enacted under a Labour government.

But clearly, full equality will only be achieved when civil partnerships are recognised as marriage. Just as with my amendment to the Equality Bill, we will need to do it in such a way that respects the religious freedoms of others, so that all couples, including gay couples, have the right to choose between a secular marriage and a religious marriage.

This will be an important next step. But the big challenge in the years ahead will come from outside the UK. As we look at the plight of gay men and women around the world, we realise that this is not a journey that’s coming to an end: it’s a journey that has barely begun. 

Lord Waheed Alli is a Labour peer and Chairman of Chorion


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One Response to “Full equality will only be achieved when civil partnerships are recognised as marriage, writes Waheed Alli”

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