Rab C Nesbitt star Elaine C Smith: ‘I’ll be so proud when Scotland passes equal marriage’
Scottish actress and comedian Elaine C Smith, best known for playing the long-suffering wife of Rab C Nesbitt in the BBC sitcom of the same name, has recorded a video for the Equality Network’s It’s Time campaign.
Speaking from Glasgow’s Pacific Quay, Smith said: “If people want to support equal marriage I think they should speak up. They should speak up against bigotry and uneducated individuals who want things to stay the same or go back to the dark ages.”
She added: “I think it is the right of every individual to marry the person that they love.”
Smith is best known for playing Mary Nesbitt in the long-running BBC sitcom Rab C Nesbitt. She is also well-known for her theatre work and recently starred as Susan Boyle in the musical I Dreamed a Dream, which will tour the UK again in 2014.
The actress hopes to be invited to a wedding once the ban on same-sex marriage is lifted in Scotland.
She said: “It was one of the best days of my life when I was best bird to my two gay women pals who had a civil partnership, and if they decide to get married I hope I’ll be best bird again. It was a really proud moment both as a woman and a Scot to actually think ‘look what we can do here’.”
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill is currently being considered by the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee who will start taking oral evidence on the bill next Thursday.
Once the committee has finished its inquiry it will report back to the Scottish Parliament, and a Stage One vote will be held in November.
Key public figures in Scotland including: Scottish National Party leader and First Minister Alex Salmond, Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, Breakfast TV star Lorraine Kelly, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie, Hollywood actor Alan Cumming, and former Scottish Socialist Party MSP Colin Fox and Scottish Green Party Co-Convenor Patrick Harvie, TV presenter Carol Smillie and comedian Susan Calman and Coronation Street actor John Michie, singer Sharleen Spiteri and writer Hardeep Singh Kohli have all recorded videos for the Equality Network’s It’s Time campaign.
The campaign is modelled on PinkNews’ Out4Marriage campaign.
