MANCHESTER, England — British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday urged reluctant Tory members of Parliament, as well as the Tory party regulars, to support same-sex marriage.
[…] I once stood before a Conservative conference and said it shouldn’t matter whether commitment was between a man and a woman, a woman and a woman, or a man and another man. You applauded me for that. Five years on, we’re consulting on legalising gay marriage.
And to anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.
“We warmly welcome David Cameron’s commitment,’ said Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of Stonewall UK, a British LGBTQ advocacy group.
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“It’s unthinkable that a Conservative prime minister would have felt able to say this a decade ago. We look forward to the government now implementing this commitment within the lifetime of this parliament, as promised,” said Summerskill.
Full text of Cameron’s Speech is here.
