Two politicians on gay marriage

In a damming article New Statesman editor, Jason Cowley, has questioned Andy Burnham’s fitness to lead the Labour Party, saying both his intellectual ability and character are in doubt. Burnham started life as an ambitious Blairite; now he has moved left to court the union vote. Raised a Catholic and educated at a Catholic comprehensive school from where he went to Cambridge, he has announced that all faith schools should be forced to put gay and lesbian relationships on a par with heterosexual ones in their teaching. He denies this is a threat to religious freedom. Like much of what Burnham says, this sounds like political opportunism of the worst kind. By way of contrast, former Australian Labor leader, Julia Gillard, offered an honest reflection on her own experience when she spoke at the London School of Economics. Challenged by an Irish student (who described the referendum as a painful experience) to say why she had not supported gay marriage when she was Prime Minister she explained that her background as a feminist had made her suspicious of all kinds of marriage. She is not married to her (male) partner because as a young woman she had no intention of walking down the aisle wearing a white wedding dress and being given away by her father. The arrival of gay marriage has led her to reconsider her views about marriage and she now hopes there will be a free vote in Parliament in Canberra. Has gay marriage made marriage cool? Probably not. The number of marriages is unlikely to rise. But Julia Gillard can be commended for addressing the issue openly and honestly and not using it merely for political advantage.