I love my country. It has its flaws, of course, but I am incredibly proud to be Scottish. Free healthcare, free prescriptions, no tuition fees, beautiful landscape, great history, fun accents, gorgeous beaches and now, possibly, marriage equality. This is one of the best little countries in the world.
Yesterday I read this article on the BBC, which detailed the Scottish Government's plans to bring forward a bill on marriage equality later this year, and saw as my Facebook and Twitter feeds exploded with praise for Scotland and the Scottish Government. It was heartwarming.
Now, I know that these plans could change or be delayed in a heartbeat, and even in the best-case scenario, it will be years before this becomes a reality. Alex Salmond has spent a few months trying to find the perfect middle ground on an issue where there isn't one. He has to offend someone: either devout Christians, or everyone else.
To dwell on things like the long timeframe, though, would be too pessimistic. This is good news, a victory for right-thinking people and equal rights. Just as the civil rights movement defined a generation in the US, the battle for marriage equality is the civil rights issue of this decade.
The fact that any nation, particularly one with a separation of church and state, could deny a basic right to a group based on the bigotry of some religious groups was utterly nonsensical. Civil partnerships are an appalling compromise, an attempt to find the non-existent middle ground on this issue.
I'm not going to go into a long rant about how ridiculous the religious opposition of same-sex marriages is—there will be ample opportunities for that in the future—but for now, I'll leave it at this:
Someday, people will look at this issue and wonder what the hell we were all doing in 2012, denying so many something so simple. Scotland needs to be right-thinking and progressive, and now they have a wonderful chance to be.
