House of Lords equal marriage debate resumes ahead of vote
Peers have resumed debate around the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in the House of Lords, during its second reading, which will end with a vote on the bill later this evening.
The remaining peers out of the 93 who signed up to speak, will make their speeches, before the Upper House votes on the bill this evening between 6 and 7pm
The former Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Lord Dear, has tabled a “fatal” amendment to deny the bill its second reading, which will be voted on before the bill itself.
A rally will be held from 5pm this evening at the House of Lords in support of same-sex marriage, ahead of the vote on the Marriage (Same sex couples) Bill. Yesterday’s rally was attended by actor Russell Tovey, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green Mike Freer, Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Minister for Equalities, Yvette Cooper, Liberal Democrat peer Liz Barker and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said to PinkNews.co.uk: “It is uncertain how the House of Lords will vote. We don’t know the extent of the opposition. It would be a big mistake to assume that equal marriage is a done deal.”
As debate heated up yesterday, many peers spoke passionately both for and against the bill, from Baroness Knight, who compared being gay to being blind, to gay Tory peer Lord Black, who said he had been with his partner for a quarter of a century, and wanted to get married, as he believed in family values, and from Lord Hylton, one of the few remaining hereditary peers left in the House of Lords, who said gay people had stolen the word ‘gay’ from its original meaning, to Baroness Barker, who stood to make a speech in which she spoke of her love for another woman – revealing publicly for the first time that she, herself, is in a same-sex relationship.
