Kim K’s Wedding Prompted An Interesting Gay Debate

Kim K got married and then divorced within 72 days. Why shouldn’t gay couples get the chance to do so too?

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The end of Kim Kardashian’s 72-day marriage was widely publicised last week. As expected, it prompted lots of the usual commentary about the shallowness and publicity-driven nature of celebrity weddings. But it also sparked off a far more interesting debate about the nature of marriage itself.

Whether you agree that marriage should be for life or not, it’s hard to accept that straight couples are allowed to marry and divorce as they will, whilst gay couples are mostly denied that simple right.

They seemed to be the perfect couple…

Kardashian’s marriage clearly disproves the notion espoused by many Conservative and Christian groups that marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman for the procreation of children, and so gay people should not be allowed equal access to it. There was nothing sacred about Kim’s marriage. She clearly got hitched for the publicity more than anything else. And whilst there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that, it seem’s unfair that Kim’s allowed to do it whilst gay couple can’t.

But, I hear you cry, surely this argument is irrelevant in this country? Apparently not.

In a recent article, political activist and Christian Alan Craig compared gay rights organisations such as Stonewall to the Nazis, calling them the “gaystapo” for attempting to fascistically force a gay agenda on Britain. By calling for gay marriage, he thinks gay people are “undermining a foundation-stone of our civilisation,” which “debases” and “corrodes” British culture. But this article was probably published in some cultish newsletter, right? Wrong again. It was published in the official Church of England newspaper. Such strong views aren’t as marginalised as we’d like to think they are.

One of the very few things I applaud David Cameron for is his public commitment to seeking marriage equality. I for one truly hope that he is able to ignore bigoted men like Alan Craig and the more archaic members of his backbenchers, and give the basic human right of marriage to everyone, regardless of their sexuality. After all, Kim K’s allowed to tie the knot, surely anyone should be able to.