Victory for Equality!

History was made yesterday when the House of Commons voted 400 – 175 in favour of gay marriage, an overwhelming majority. Despite this, it did not go as well as planned for David Cameron as more Conservative MPs voted against it rather than for it. Here is the breakdown of how the parties voted (note the SNP did not vote as it is a devolved issue and Sinn Fein doesn’t sit in the House of Comons).

Party	Yes	No	Abstained
Conservative	127	136	40
Labour	220	22	16
Liberal Democrat	45	4	7
DUP	0	8	0
Plaid Cymru	3	0	0
SDLP	1	0	2
Alliance	1	0	0
Respect	1	0	0
Green	1	0	0
Independents	1	2	0

The Tory rebels included two cabinet ministers, Owen Patterson the Environment Secretary and David Jones, the Welsh secretary. This is a massive blow to David Cameron’s authority within the Conservative Party, a lot of party members are unhappy about this self-inflicted wound.

Although the bill has not become law yet, when it passes through committee and the House of Lords it will mean that same-sex couples in England and Wales will be allowed to get married. The law will not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland, although in Scotland there are plans to pass it soon. The combined population of England and Wales means that it will become the largest jurisdiction to have passed gay marriage. This means the UK will join 11 other countries (Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Sweden) as well as subdivisions of Brazil, Mexico and the US. There is still a lot to do for gay rights, although progress is moving quickly in several places. There is discussion about passing gay marriage in several states of Mexico and the US. Gay marriage is likely to be legalised in Andorra, Colombia, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Nepal, New Zealand, Taiwan and Uruguay within the next couple of years.

Unfortunately for gay people, there are worse issues. In most African and Middle Eastern states homosexuality is a punishable offense, sometimes even by death. Gay rights groups need to do more work trying to convince more people in these countries that gay sex is not a sin.

2013 is looking like it could be the best year gay marriage rights have ever had, here’s just a few key dates to watch out for:

12^th of February: France’s National Assembly votes on a same-sex marriage bill (likely to pass)

28^th of February: A Select Committee in New Zealand’s parliament will report on whether a same-sex marriage bill should continue.

April: Uruguay’s Senate will vote on a same-sex marriage bill that has already passed the Chamber of Deputies

Spring: Same-sex marriage will be discussed at Vietnam’s National Assembly

20^th of June: If Colombia’s Congress does not legislate then same-sex marriage will automatically be legalised.