A short diary on some good equality news that I was very pleased to read today, from where I live down under in New Zealand:
A bill on whether to legalise gay marriage is to go before Parliament.
The bill, submitted by Labour MP Louisa Wall and aimed at legalising same-sex marriage, has been drawn from the Members Bill Ballot.
...
[The bill] makes it clear that marriage is a union of two people regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
I see it got a mention online in the WaPo too.
A little background: New Zealand introduced civil unions (for same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples who prefer the term over marriage) in 2004, with legislation that gave those in civil unions almost identical rights as marriage - the only difference I'm aware of being adoption rights. This bill is important not only to address that omission, but as a principle. Even if the practical gap in rights between a marriage and a civil union was non-existent, so that it really just comes down to what government-recognized title a couple prefers, there should not be any difference at all between them in eligibility.
Comments from politicians who will debate the bill are positive, as I've snipped from a few different online news articles today:
"The time has come, the community is in the right pace for it."
"I think it's got a good chance of going through."
"I am very pleased to say I will be campaigning hard out to support [the bill.]"
[Access to civil unions but not marriage is not enough because] "For many people, they believe this is about marriage and they want to be recognised in exactly the same way. It's about marriage equality at the end of the day - those people having the same rights."
Partners ... should be entitled to enter into marriage and/or adopt children, with the same legal protections, rights and responsibilities for all, regardless of sex, race or class.
"Public opinion polls show that more than twice as many New Zealanders support marriage equality as oppose it."
Like much potential legislation on social issues, this bill was picked through the ballot process. It was one of five drawn today from a pool of 62, although there was actually about a one in 6 chance because there were two very similar bills on this issue in the ballot: one MP each from the Labour Party and the Greens, the two main left of center parties in NZ, had submitted them.
The time frame from ballot selection, successive readings, redraftings, to becoming law can vary - and the ballot selection is no guarantee this will pass every hurdle. But I am confident the time is right, this will pass, to be established alongside New Zealand's already good set of human rights legislation.
New Zealand is a small country, but progress doesn't happen in a vacuum - perhaps this will help in a small way to see similar advances in rights to be realised elsewhere.