Legalisation of gay marriage in the Western world- But when will the rest of the world catch up?

If you haven't been keeping up with current affairs recently, there is a huge debate going on in different parts of the world about legalising gay marriage. Some countries around the world and some states in USA allow LGBT individuals to have civil partnerships but many do not recognise marriage legally. Marriage is considered to be a social and legal union between two people which recognises their rights and obligations as well their commitment to each other. The countries that deny the rights of LGBT's to get married are essentially saying that this is only allowed if you are a male and female couple wanting to enter into 'holy' matrimony. Well actually it no longer needs to be 'holy' as civil weddings are also legal in most countries so really you need to be male and female in order to get married. I don't know about you but I find this to be a gross human rights violation. The fact that as a straight woman I am allowed to get married as I chose whereas my friend Robert in the states has to be content with a civil partnership to his partner of 10 years I find very unfair. What gives us the right to proclaim a heterosexual relationship better than a homosexual one? I know many heterosexual couple very unhappy in their marriage and know many gay couples very very happy in their relationship. And don't you dare give me the religion angle- not all of us believe EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the holy books.  Also, there is no 'cure' for homosexuality, REALLY!

I was raised (at least for the first 8-9 years of my life) in a city called Dhaka in Bangladesh (google it if you don't know where it is!). Bangladesh is predominately a muslim country which though not overtly conservative (we are not made to wear head scarfs etc), still has similar values to most conservative religious countries. I grew up not knowing anything about the LGBT community; the idea that a man and a man or a woman and a woman could be in love and want to get married was alien to me. My first exposure to homosexuality came when I was in boarding schools in Kenya and the United Kingdom. Both of the schools were Church of England schools and considered homosexuality to be an abomination. Throughout my school life we were taught that marriage is for men and women, abortion is a sin, no sex before marriage, believing in God was my only salvation etc etc, I'm sure you get the picture. I have been horrified and ashamed by some of the Facebook status that came up on my feed during the UK same sex marriage debate- unsurprisingly almost exclusively from some of my old school friends.  It would be easy to blame a religious institution of breeding this kind of hate from a young age in young impressionable individuals but the truth is many conservatives around the world hold the same kind of belief regardless of their religious or cultural beliefs. 

Change is always difficult for people to understand and accept but ultimately it does happen. Take for example the end of slavery, the fall of the British Empire and now the shift in perception of gay marriage. Two hundred years ago if you told someone there would be a black president in the United States surely they would have laughed at you (best case scenario!); a hundred years ago if you told the British Raj that there would be an Indian revolution in a few decades they would have mocked you. However, it did happen and sooner or later gay marriage will be legalised along all of the western world. UK recently passed the gay marriage law and the United States is currently debating the issue in the supreme court with many people coming out on the streets to show support. 

The question is how long will it take the rest of the world to catch up? In a world where homosexuality is still punishable by death in some parts of the world, when will we see a major shift in perception and acceptance of all regardless of their colour, gender, creed and sexual orientation? I recently read an article published in Bangladesh where for the first time gay individuals anonymously spoke up about their experiences of being gay in a muslim country. Most of them felt hopeless and spoke about their plans of moving to a country where they are accepted for who they are and given the option of pursuing a relationship with someone publicly. I have also read in the past that in the Middle East lesbians are marrying gays with full knowledge of their sexual orientation to stay in the closet. Once married they are free to pursue same sex relationships as in the eye of the world they stay a 'respectable' conventional couple. The same can apparently be said about China. It is sad and unfair that people have to go to these lengths to hide such an important part of them but it also gives me hope that people in countries like mine have started a dialogue about such issues. I doubt I will get to see it in my time but maybe our grandchildren can build a world where secularism and acceptance triumphs over religious extremism and right wing conservative ideology. Pipe dream you say? Well go figure!

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