Originally Posted By TomSawyer The bill to legalize gay marriage in the UK has passed Parliament and has been assented to by Queen Elizabeth. Civil unions, which have been legal since 2005, can be converted to marriages.
Originally Posted By dagobert Good to see that. It's about time that Austria does the same. Until now only civil unions are legal.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 This, of course, is wonderful news. In a bit of a depressing reality check, though... <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/prominent-gay-rights-activist-is-found-dead-in-cameroon/">http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.c...ameroon/</a> There are still dozens of countries in the world where you can be imprisoned -and worse - simply for being gay. In this one, Cameroon, an activist working to stop that was tortured and killed. Such attacks are typically carried out with impunity. I don't mean to dampen the celebration. Just to remind people that as much of the world advances, much of the world remains mired in bigotry (and the comments section of any story on LGBT matters in this country will show that even in more advanced countries, such bigotry stubbornly hangs on as well, even if it's - usually - not as lethal as this.) Guess I'm in a crappy mood today. Partly it's Zimmerman and the people celebrating him as some sort of hero all over the South (and even elsewhere), partly it's reading this story. Time to renew with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. This crap has to be fought everywhere.
Originally Posted By ecdc Once again, our friends across the pond get it right. Well done. Speaking of...has anyone heard from Dave (as in, wasbaloo)?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Finally some good news in this part of LP. Cheers and congratulations to the folks in Great Britain.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Speaking of...has anyone heard from Dave (as in, wasbaloo)?<<< Approximately a month ago, or maybe a bit longer, we had a talk on Facebook. Although it was mostly about Disney, it seemed he was doing better.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Although it was mostly about Disney, it seemed he was doing better.<< Thanks for the update, that's really good to hear. I'm not really on Facebook (at least with LPers, and I'm considering chucking it altogether) so I'm a bit out of the loop, I think. IIRC, he had a perfect storm of personal issues, health problems, and work concerns, so it's good to hear he's doing okay, or at least better.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo nitpick: I think this is only England and Wales. I believe Scotland has legislation in the works. Who knows about N. Ireland. But not to throw a damper on the good news, It's always great to see civil rights progress!
Originally Posted By Labuda ecdc - Dave still has his ups & downs, but the downs appear to be many fewer and much more far between than they were a while back.
