So What Did You Read On My Blog This Year?

So here are my top 6 most read blog posts of the year, in reverse order...

6. My Disappointment With Tim Farron Grows

I really do think Tim Farron is a nice guy who regularly engages with ordinary members of the party through Twitter and other mediums. But I just think we are, politically and religiously, on such different pages as to render me unable to support him still.

5. A New Danger From Civil Partnerships

Queensland, Australia showed us that whilst we are "separate but equal" we are far more at risk of having our rights removed at the whim of those who think we are not worthy of equality.

4. Will Religious Organisations Be Forced To Perform Same-Sex Marriages? No. 

Quite a popular little post this one, and one I'm rather proud of. It was certainly educating to research the various legal opinions and no one has yet come back with a response to it. Obviously it was written before the Government announcement in December 2012 of the protections given to religious organisations and the craziness that followed.

3. Dear Anti-Marriage Equality Activists: Thank You!

I think the polls are showing that I was right to thank our opponents! The more they sound hateful, the more support equal marriage gets. Thank you once again!

2. The Church of England, Equal Marriage and the Truth

Written only two weeks ago it is already sitting at no. 4 of my all time most read blog posts (on this blog at least). My response to the craziness that followed the Government's equal marriage announcement within liberal and Anglican circles.

1. The Differences Between Civil Partnerships and Marriage

This year's update to my all-time most read post on this blog has, inevitably, been pretty popular as a one stop shop to show there are differences between the two different partnership institutions.

I think I've said most of what I've wanted to say about marriage equality, and I'll always have these, and other, posts to link back to should I need them. I know many of you, Dear Constant Readers, have found some of these very useful this year in your debates with colleagues, friends and random people on the internet! I hope to write about more diverse topics in 2013 although, before I move on, there will be one more post to come: The Differences Between Equal Marriage And What The Coalition Are Proposing. Just to end on an honest, if slightly negative, note!

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

2012: The Year I Had Been Waiting For

2004 marked an important moment in my personal life; it was the year I met and fell in love with Jim. It was also the year the then Labour Government introduced civil partnership legislation. It was then, at the very moment I found the man of my dreams, I started to feel annoyed at the lack of marriage equality.

8 years I've moaned and screamed here, and in other places, about this unfairness. Even as recently as 2010 I was pessimistic of the chances of equal marriage becoming reality any time soon. But things change and, as is often the case, it looks like I was quite wrong.

2012 not only saw a consultation from the Westminster Government on civil marriage equality, but the announcement of full(ish) marriage equality legislation being introduced for England and Wales and the same from the Scottish Government too. And we now have many organisations and campaigns, run by far cleverer and more political savvy people than me, pushing forward to see this legislation put on to the law books.

I feel like we have reached the point where my shouting and screaming no longer has a place in the fight. This pleases me greatly. 2013 shall, I have decided, be the year I leave the fight to my betters. There are still things to fight for (such as equal pension rights, equality for mixed-sex civil partnerships and restitution of marriages dissolved in the past) and against (the haters) but I'm pretty confident that these things are in hand. My grumpy and honest approach has been described as negative before, and I feel is probably not best-suited to win over the more politically minded people that marriage equality needs now.

So goodbye good ol' 2012, the year I never thought would come, and hello to 2013, the year that shall bring us ever greater freedom.

Happy New Year, Dear Constant Reader. Now what shall I find to moan about next....

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