Baroness King: I’ve never felt so privileged as I did voting today for equal marriage

Labour peer Baroness Oona King spoke to PinkNews shortly after the vote in favour of the same-sex marriage bill in the House of Lords today.

Peers in the House of Lords voted this evening with a large majority to scrap an amendment tabled by Lord Dear, which would have deprived the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill of its second reading.

Baroness King was among those who voted against the amendment.

She told PinkNews: “I’ve received a lot of tweets saying ‘Thank you for voting for equality’.

“I’ve honestly never felt so privileged in my life,” she added. “It’s amazing to be able to get up and vote for people to have equal rights. I still can’t believe, in 2013, we really have to do that, but we do – and I’m there.

“And, for once, the House of Lords was on it, they were all over it. I’m just absolutely thrilled.”

The second black female MP to be elected in the UK, she became Channel 4′s Chief Diversity Officer after being defeated by George Galloway in the 2005 general election in the east London seat of Bethnal Green and Bow.

Last year Baroness King said in an Out4Marriage video: “When my black father married my white mother it was illegal for them to get married in several American states and today we have the same thing for gay people.”

Gay Labour peer Lord Waheed Alli said the vote was “a stunning victory for equality” while Baroness Liz Barker, who came out during the debate, said the House of Lords “showed it’s generosity, spirit, relevance and understanding of young people”.

• Oct 11

National Coming Out Day: Every celebrity who’s come out as LGBTQ+ in 2024 so far