Marriage News Watch: July 22, 2013

Church of England To Fight Against Homophobic Bullying

From the BBC: 

[Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby:] "With nearly a million children educated in our schools we not only must demonstrate a profound commitment to stamp out such stereotyping and bullying but we must also take action. 

"We are therefore developing a programme for use in our schools, taking the best advice we can find anywhere, that specifically targets such bullying." 

New proposals before the Synod meeting could see measures to introduce women bishops be adopted as draft legislation ahead of a possible vote in 2015. 

The archbishop, who took up his post in March, has said he wants to see the measure passed as soon as possible.

Even though the Church of England is not changing their teachings on marriage (they are against equality), this effort against anti-gay bullying sets them light-years ahead of most churches in the United States. Here, instead of protecting LGBT students, many religious schools have policies in place that preclude them from seeking help from faculty and staff for fear of expulsion. Even outside of parochial schools, churches, religious figures, and leaders of social conservative groups fight against legislative efforts to protect LGBT students from bullying in public schools.

What the Church of England is doing here is the right thing to do. Would that churches in America would do the same...

Fracking Concerns in the United Kingdom

Prince Harry, the Hero

From the Daily Mail: 

A gay soldier told last night how Prince Harry bravely rescued him from a terrifying homophobic attack by squaddies from a rival regiment. 

The Prince stepped in to save Trooper James Wharton after he was confronted by six soldiers threatening to ‘batter’ him. 

Trooper Wharton fled to find Harry – who was his tank commander – and tearfully told the Prince what had happened. 

‘I told him, “I think I’m going to be murdered by the infantry.” I climbed into the turret and talked Harry through exactly what had happened. He had a complete look of bewilderment on his face. 

‘I couldn’t stop the tears from welling up in my eyes. He said, “Right I’m going to sort this s*** out once and for all.”

'He climbed out of the tank and I poked my head out of the turret a few moments later to see him having a go,’ Wharton said.

~

After taking on the gang, Harry briefed a senior officer before returning to assure Wharton the situation had been ‘sorted’. 

The soldier, who quit the Army earlier this year, said: ‘I will always be grateful to Harry and I will never forget what happened. Until he went over and dealt with everything I was on track for a battering.’ 

The remarkable incident reinforces the view of Harry as an officer with unfailing commitment to the troops under his command.

There is a LOT more to this article, which gives a good deal of insight into Prince Harry and his time in the British military. It was a great read.

British House of Commons Passes Marriage Equality

A big congratulations to the British House of Commons which today voted in favour of marriage equality. Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservative Party faced some strong opposition in pushing for this bill. Even in the face of that, he held firm in his support of the measure. The bill still has to go through the House of Lords, but the Commons was the major hurdle of this legislation. Once the bill's passage is finalized, England will be the 15th* nation to enact full marriage equality and the 4th nation in just the first half of this year along with Uruguay, France, and New Zealand.

For equality, today was a good day.

*There may actually be 16 nations given a ruling by the court system in Brazil that may have paved the way for equality there as well, but so far as I know, that has yet to be ironed out.

Tweet of the Day: April 9, 2013