Dear Anti-Marriage Equality Activists: Thank You!

Once upon a time I was concerned at the lack of visibility of the issue of marriage equality. Hardly anyone in this country, LGBT or straight, seemed to care. I lamented that most were satisfied with civil partnerships, and the actions of campaigners like Peter Tatchell or individual members of the public like myself did not seem to be changing the situation all that much. Even after the Liberal Democrats adopted marriage equality as an official policy, most folks seemed unenergised. However, thanks to you rabidly anti-equality folks out there, the issue has exploded on to the political scene!

Every time someone says marriage equality is equivalent to slavery or might lead to polygamy, you push yet more undecideds into the marriage equality camp. They didn't care about it until you attempted to suggest same sex relationships are inferior to opposite-sex ones. Thank you so much for that.

Every time someone says marriage equality isn't important, you incense just enough "don't knows" into active support. And every time you waste Parliamentary time during an irrelevant debate to suggest we shouldn't waste Parliamentary time on the subject, you point out the stupidity of your argument and force people to stand against you. After all, if you opposed it because it was unimportant you surely wouldn't want to bang on about it so much in debates that aren't about it! Thank you for undermining your own arguments. It's really helping.

Every time you parrot the lie that civil partnerships and marriage are the same and there's no need to call them the same thing, you cause free-thinking types to ponder whether that's actually true. You open up the debate to the truth, which was so hard to get across beforehand. Thank you for helping us get the message out there.

Every time you complain that it'll force churches to carry out same-sex marriages, you remind people that there are plenty of churches and religions that are currently forced not to! And when you bang on about this during a consultation only relevant to marriages not conducted on religious premises, you remind people that you don't know what you're talking about. Thank you for standing against religious freedom, it reminds people that this consultation doesn't go far enough!

Every time you call it "gay marriage", you remind us that we're not just fighting for "gay rights" but for the rights of bisexuals, transgendered people and, this might alarm you, everyone else. Thanks for promoting diversity!

When marriage equality becomes law, I'll always remember your help in making it so much easier. Without you I think this issue would've been swept under the carpet a long time ago. My warmest thanks indeed!

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist